Dedicated to cicadas, the most amazing insects in the world.
Here is a quick way to tell the difference between the 7 periodical cicadas species:
Download this chart. Click/tap is for a larger version:
Then read this and listen to the sound files on the page: Where will 17 & 13 Year Periodical Cicada Broods emerge next?
And/or watch this video:
Cicada researcher and communicator Dr. Gene Kritsky has a new book about Brood XIX and XIII which are both emerging in spring of 2024: A Tale of Two Broods: The 2024 Emergence of Periodical Cicada Broods XIII and XIX. It is available in paperback and Kindle formats.
Other posts about Dr. Gene Kritsky on this site:
Updated on 2/10/2024.
2024 is the big year in the U.S.A. Two Magicicada Broods, Brood XIII (Thirteen) and Brood XIX (Nineteen, aka the Great Southern Brood) will emerge in the United States. People call these cicadas “locusts”, but they are cicadas.
Get ready for a zillion of these (if you’re in the right location):
Here’s a chart that shows where Brood XIX and Brood XIII are in their emergence cycle:
Download an Excel of the Timeline.
Brood XIX has a 13-year cycle, features four species, and is found in:
Alabama, north-west half of Arkansas, north-west Georgia, southeast Iowa, southern Illinois, south-west Indiana, western Kentucky, northern Louisiana, Maryland in St. Mary’s County, Missouri, Mississippi, central North Carolina, eastern Oklahoma, western South Carolina, Tennessee, eastern Virginia.
Big cities in range of Brood XIX include Nashville (TN), Charlotte (NC) and St. Louis (MO), keeping in mind that they prefer the suburbs.
Read lots more about Brood XIX.
Brood XIII has a 17-year cycle, features three species, and is found in:
Eastern Iowa, northern Illinois, Indiana, near Lake Michigan, and southern Wisconsin. Though likely extinct, the brood once appeared in Michigan along the border with Indiana.
The largest city in Brood XIII is Chicago, Illinois, and the Lake County Forest Preserve in the suburbs of Chicago is a good place to visit for tourists. The Michigan part of the brood is likely extinct, so do not look there if you are a tourist.
Read lots more about Brood XIII.
They do not overlap! But, they come close in some areas.
Both Brood XIX and XIII exist in Macon, Sangamon, Livingston and Logan counties in Illinois. The easily accessible place they come closest to overlapping is Springfield, Illinois, which is in Sangamon County. Compare this Brood XIII map with this Brood XIX.
People wonder what would happen if members of the broods mate. Their offspring would likely live and adopt either a 13 or 17 year life cycle. This will likely not happen because they don’t overlap, however, one experiment would be to get similar species from XIX and XIII and put them in an enclosure to see if they will mate.
Magicicada stragglers from other broods will emerge in small numbers.
In the United States, annual cicada emergences will happen like they did in 2023, with few surprises. Cicadas in southern locations will emerge first, with Quesada gigas emerging early on. Look at the chart on the cicada sounds page for a calendar of annual cicada emergences.
The cicadas that have a camouflage appearance are Neotibicen, like Neotibicen linnei aka Linne’s Cicada, or Megatibicen, Megatibicen resh aka Resh Cicada, and they are annual cicadas.
A Neotibicen tibicen, perhaps the most common annual cicada in North America.
Emergences of proto-periodical cicadas depend on multiple factors including the species, crowding, location, and cumulative rainfall, making it hard to predict when they will emerge. We can’t say exactly when they’ll emerge in your location. Platypedia species, in particular, represent a “boon” to fly fishers, as they send fish into a feeding frenzy. The best bet for Platypedia cicadas is to tune into iNaturalist from April to June.
A Platypedia cicada, photo by CGWiber.
Generally speaking, cicadas in the Northern hemisphere emerge somewhere between March and September, and in the Southern hemisphere, somewhere between September and March. In places closer to the equator, like Ecuador, you can have cicadas for almost the entire year. You can use sites like iNaturalist and Cicada Mania to do research. iNaturalist compiles cicada identifications, including photos, sounds and geographic data. Cicada Mania contains basic facts and historical and cultural knowledge.
There are periodical species of cicadas in Fiji and India, but none are emerging in 2024.
You can also explore specific countries like…
More to come. Here is the 2023 Forecast.
Mary Rotter Fullerton found, or rather heard and recorded, a Brood XIII Magicicada cassini straggler on October 2nd, 2023, in Park Ridge, Illinois! This cicada emerged 7 months early!
Listen to the edited file (volume increased, background noise removed):
There are squirrel sounds in the mix as well.
Mary says:
Very cool, I have never heard one in fall. It was in a 50-year old maple tree that hosted many stragglers (early Brood XIII?) this past spring of 2023. Park Ridge, IL.
Spectrogram:
David Marshall of InsectSingers.com confirmed that this is indeed a Magicicada cassini.
David says:
Yes to me that’s unquestionably a set of cassini calls. There are some literature records of autumn Magicicada, sometimes with speculation that it’s related to sudden late-season warmups.
It looks like there’s been quite a few fall stragglers, according to the Magicicada Straggler project on iNaturalist.
Updated for June 7th!
Here’s a map of 2023 Magicicada straggler sightings from 2023 Magicicada stragglers iNaturalist project and the Cicada Safari app. Dr. Gene Kritsky compiled the map.
It looks like there are plenty of stragglers from these broods:
Learn about Magicicada stragglers.
News! A Brood XIX straggler has emerged in Georgia! More stragglers have been sighted in Hartselle AL, Pittsboro, NC, Chattanooga, TN, Asheboro, NC, and Chapel Hill, NC.
2024 will be a “magical” year for cicada fans because the periodical cicada broods XIII and XIX will emerge in 2024. These broods co-emerge every 221 years (13 X 17). The last time they co-emerged was in 1803, the same year as the Louisiana Purchase (the same year the U.S. got Brood XIX states Louisiana, Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma). Coincidence? Perhaps.
Brood XIII (13) has a 17-year lifecycle and is found in the states of IA, IL, IN, MI, and WI. This brood features the species Magicicada septendecim, Magicicada cassini, and Magicicada septendecula.
People (cicada tourists) have begun to ask “Where is the best place to see Brood XIII in 2024?”. I can recommend the Ryerson Conservation Area in Deerfield, IL. See photos and videos from my trip there in 2007. Illinois has both Brood XIII and Brood XIX, and all 7 Magicicada species. So you could spend a week in southern Illinois for Brood XIX and then travel north to Deerfield for Brood XIII.
Brood XIX (19) has a 13-year lifecycle and is found in the states of AL, AR, GA, IA, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, MD, MO, MS, NC, OK, SC, TN, and VA. This brood is also known as the Great Southern Brood and features the species Magicicada tredecim, Magicicada neotredecim, Magicicada tredecassini, and Magicicada tredecula.
Do these broods overlap? If they do, it’s in the Springfield, Illinois area. Springfield is a good place for your cicada sightseeing “basecamp”. Take a look at these maps on the UCONN Cicadas website: Brood XIX and Brood XIII.
Your next chance to see and hear two broods co-emerge will be in 2037 when Brood XIX and Brood IX (9) emerge.
One of the most fun periodical cicada experiences is watching thousands of nymphs emerge from the ground at night, crawl to the nearest vertical surface (hopefully a tree) and begin to molt.
This is a video by Roy Troutman from 2007 of the Brood XIII emergence, specifically in Ryerson Woods in Illinois:
Observing magicicada emergence at Ryerson Woods from Roy Troutman on Vimeo.
Here’s a time-lapse video, also by Roy, of a cicada nymph molting:
Magicicada nymph molting from Roy Troutman on Vimeo.
Many periodical cicadas emerged four years early in the Chicago area in 2020. These cicadas belong to the Brood XIII (13) which is set to emerge in 2024, and last emerged in 2007. Periodical cicadas often emerge in years proceeding or following the year their brood is expected to emerge. This phenomenon is called straggling. Most of the time these “stragglers” emerge in small numbers and are quickly eaten by predators, and do not go on to sing, chorus (synchronized singing for the purpose of attracting females), mate, and lay eggs. Sometimes they emerge in numbers large enough to survive, chorus, and reproduce — this seems to have happened in the Chicago area in 2020. It is thought this is how new broods formed over the millennia — cicadas emerge 4 or 1 year early in significant numbers and form a new brood. When enough stragglers emerge to successfully reproduce it is called an acceleration.
So, is a new brood forming around Chicago? Is this due to climate change or localized “heat islands”? Will the progeny of these stragglers emerge in 13, 17 or 21 years? Lots of questions — but we’ll need to wait quite some time to answer them.
There is a precedence for Brood XIII cicadas straggling in the Chicago area:
In 1969 massive numbers of periodical cicadas emerged in the Chicago suburbs 1 (Williams, K.S. & Simon, C. 1995).
In 1986, another 4-year acceleration was observed in the Chicago area by Monte Lloyd 1.
In 2003, many people left observations on our forums. Observations were made in Glenview, Flossmoor, Riverside, Downers Grove, Homewood, Westmont, Oak Park, and Hinsdale. Here are some examples:
Magicicada emerging this evening
Date: Wednesday, Jun/4/2003
As I went for a walk this evening I noticed quite a few periodic cicadas emerging in the grass, crawling on the sidewalks and on the trunks of trees. This is not our year for the 17-year brood. We should not have them until 2007. Has anyone else in the Chicago area seen these cicadas? — Sue, Flossmoor, IL
Cicada singing
Date: Monday, Jun/9/2003
I heard the cicadas singing for the first time this morning after my walk. Now that I have my doors open I can hear them on and off. — Sue, Flossmoor, IL
In 2020 many people left comments on the Brood XIII page, emailed us (thanks Neil) and left sightings via the Cicada Safari app.
1Williams, K.S. & Simon, C. 1995. The Ecology, Behavior, and Evolution of Periodical Cicadas. Annual Review of Entomology. Vol. 40:269-295 (https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.en.40.010195.001413).
Special note: Brood XIX (19) will also emerge in 2024. While the two broods do not overlap, they come closest in the Springfield, Illinois area.
Periodical cicada Brood XIII (13) will emerge in the spring of 2024 in Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, and possibly Michigan. The last time this brood emerged was in 2007.
What, when, where, and why:
What:
Millions of these:
Videos from 2009:
When: Typically beginning in mid-May and ending in late June. These cicadas will begin to emerge approximately when the soil 8 inches beneath the ground reaches 64 degrees Fahrenheit. A nice, warm rain will often trigger an emergence.
Other tips: these cicadas will emerge after the trees have grown leaves, and, by my own observation, around the same time Iris flowers bloom.
Where:
Cicadas @ UCONN (formerly Magicicada.org) has the most up-to-date maps.
More Location Tips:
Local Events
Lake County Forest Preserve in Illinois: 1) A cicada exhibit opening at the Dunn Museum in Libertyville, IL on April 27th. 2) Cicadas of Lake County on 5/2. 3) Celebrating Cicadas on 5/16. 4) On Sunday, June 9th, they plan to hold CicadaFest at Ryerson Woods. Insects, and of course, cicadas will be featured.
Why: Why do they stay underground for 17-years? The prevailing research suggests they have evolved a long lifecycle allowing them to avoid predators that would sync up with their lifecycle & emergence. Why are there so many?! Research suggests that their huge numbers allow them to overwhelm predators, so enough of them will live on to breed and perpetuate the brood.
More facts and fun:
See a modern map, or the Live Map from the Cicada Safari app.
Cicada Carousel Ride at the Brookfield Zoo, in Brookfield, Illinois. 2007 in celebration of Brood XIII.
