Brood XXIII will next emerge in 2028.
This page was last updated in 2015.
The Latest:
The most popular question in the comments: “how long will they last”. The typical answer is about 4 weeks of singing or less. They sing to meet a mate, and once they mate a few times, they run out of energy and die. Four weeks is the typical time, although this varies depending on the weather. The cicadas will complete their mission faster if there are drier, calm days in with temps in the 80s.
My gallery of photos from Brood XXIII.
The Giant City State Park area of Illinois was loaded with cicadas. This area has all four species. It isn’t easy to tell the difference between M. neotredecim and M. tredecim, but you might notice a difference in the coloration of their abdomens (tredecim is almost all orange, while neotredecim is orange and black). There is also a difference in the pitch of their calls when they are in close proximity, so you might hear an odd dissonance in their calls. M. tredecim pitches lower. I will post photos, videos and sounds later in the week.
There are plenty of cicadas in the Land Between the Lakes area of Kentucky & Tennessee. The best place so far was Kenlake State Resort Park where M. tredecassini, M. tredecula, and M. tredecim are chorusing. The tredecula and tredecim were up in the trees out of reach, but I was able to find a few tredecim (the bigger ones with very-orange abdomens) in the weeds at ground level.
Cold and rain (and road weariness) has prevented me from locating cicadas in Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas — I know they’re there but if I can’t hear them, I can’t investigate. I’m headed north to Tennessee, Kentucky, and Illinois. Sun and temps in the 80s should make for good cicada observation. If you’re wondering why cicadas have suddenly become quiet, it’s typically because of cold temps and rain. Generally, these cicadas like it to be about 77F before they’ll fly and sing. Colder than that, and they’ll chill.
I arrived in the Jackson Mississippi area on May 19th around 3 pm. M. tredecassini were chorusing along route 20 west of Roosevelt State Park, and I found an M. tredecim (below) at a gas station. There were plenty of M. tredecassini and M. tredecula chorusing and courting in the woods behind the Mississippi Museum of Natural History. Neocicada hieroglyphica (a non-periodical cicada) was also calling in the woods.
The 2015 Brood XXIII is well under way! The first photo showed up on flickr, and first sighting (Mississippi) has showed up on the Cicadas @ UCONN (formerly Magicicada.org) map.
About Brood XXIII:
Brood XXIII, the Lower Mississippi Valley brood, will emerge in Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, Tennessee, Missouri, Kentucky, Illinois, and Indiana, in the spring of 2015.
Species:
The cicada species that will emerge are Magicicada tredecim (Walsh and Riley, 1868); Magicicada neotredecim Marshall and Cooley, 2000; Magicicada tredecassini Alexander and Moore, 1962; and Magicicada tredecula Alexander and Moore, 1962. These periodical cicadas have a 13-year life cycle. The last time they emerged was 2002. According to John Cooley of Cicadas @ UCONN (formerly Magicicada.org), Giant City State Park, Illinois is a good place to observe both M. tredecim and M. neotredecim.
13 Years ago:
Back in 2002, the emergence began in the last week of April, 2002, and ended the beginning of July. You can read what people said about them back in April, May, and June of 2002.
Here are the locations where folks reported the cicadas to Cicada Mania in 2002:
Arkansas: Bayou Deview Wildlife Management Area, Poinsett County, Devalls Bluff, Harrisburg, Holland Bottoms, Jacksonville, Jonesboro, Knox Co., Lake Hogue, Lake Poinsett State Park, Little Rock, and Wynne.
Illinois: Anna, Carbondale, Carterville, Chester, Clinton Lake, Marissa and Robinson.
Indiana: Harmonie State Park, Hymera, Leanne, Richland, Sullivan And Posey Counties.
Kentucky: Benton, Calvert City, Gilbertsville, Henry County, Murray, and Paducah.
Louisiana: Bastrop, Choudrant, Grayson and West Monroe.
Mississippi: Alva, Arlington, Booneville, Brandon, Clinton, Corinth, Desoto County, Florence, French Camp, Hernando, Holcomb, Houlka, Jackson, New Albany, Oxford, Potts Camp, Silver Creek, Tishomingo, and Water Valley.
Tennessee: Atoka, Benton, Cordova, Henry County, Huntingdon, Jackson, Lavinia, Leach, Lexington, McNeary County, Memphis, Paris, Savannah, and Speedwell.
Report and learn:
All the counties/parishes:
Here is a list of the Counties where Brood IV periodical cicadas have appeared in the past. The data comes from the Cicada Central Magicicada Database.
Arkansas: Bradley, Calhoun, Carroll, Chicot, Clark, Cleburne, Cleveland, Columbia, Conway, Craighead, Crawford, Crittenden, Cross, Dallas, Drew, Faulkner, Franklin, Fulton, Garland, Howard, Independence, Izard, Jackson, Jefferson, Lafayette, Marion, Mississippi, Monroe, Montgomery, Newton, Perry, Poinsett, Prairie, Randolph, Saline, Sebastian, St Francis, Stone, Union, Van Buren, Washington, White, Woodruff, Yell
Illinois: Alexander, Champaign, Clark, Crawford, DeWitt, Edwards, Jackson, Lawrence, Logan, Macon, McLean, Perry, Piatt, Pulaski, Randolph, Richland, St Clair, Union, Vermilion, Wabash, Williamson
Indiana: Bartholomew, Clay, Daviess, Franklin, Gibson, Greene, Harrison, Jackson, Jefferson, Knox, Lawrence, Parke, Perry, Pike, Posey, Putnam, Ripley, Spencer, Sullivan, Vanderburgh, Warrick
Kentucky: Ballard, Barren, Calloway, Carlisle, Christian, Clinton, Crittenden, Daviess, Fulton, Grant, Graves, Hardin, Hickman, Hopkins, Lee, Logan, Lyon, Marshall, McCracken, Metcalfe, Muhlenberg, Ohio, Simpson, Todd, Trigg, Warren, Webster
Louisiana: Bienville, Caddo, Caldwell, Catahoula, East Feliciana, Jackson, Livingston, Madison, Morehouse, Ouachita, Pointe Coupee, Richland, Tangipahoa, Tensas, Washington, Webster, West Carroll
Mississippi: Adams, Alcorn, Amite, Attala, Benton, Calhoun, Carroll, Choctaw, Claiborne, Clarke, Clay, Coahoma, Copiah, Covington, DeSoto, Franklin, Grenada, Hinds, Holmes, Issaquena, Itawamba, Jasper, Jefferson, Kemper, Lafayette, Lamar, Lauderdale, Lawrence, Lee, Leflore, Lincoln, Lowndes, Madison, Marion, Marshall, Montgomery, Neshoba, Newton, Noxubee, Oktibbeha, Panola, Pike, Pontotoc, Prentiss, Quitman, Rankin, Scott, Sharkey, Simpson, Sunflower, Tallahatchie, Tate, Tishomingo, Warren, Washington, Yalobusha, Yazoo
Tennessee: Carroll, Cheatham, Chester, Decatur, Dyer, Fayette, Gibson, Hardeman, Hardin, Haywood, Henderson, Henry, Humphreys, Lake, Lauderdale, Madison, Maury, McNairy, Montgomery, Obion, Rutherford, Shelby, Stewart, Tipton, Wayne, Weakley, Williamson
Brood XIII Map from Marlatt, C.L.. 1907. The periodical cicada. Washington, D.C. : U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Bureau of Entomology.
What’s interesting is the Hodgkinia bacteria became two distinct species for no particular discernible reason (nonadaptive evolution). Separate, either of the species would be useless to the cicada because they produce an incomplete set of nutrients, but together they produce the compete set of nutrients. Two function as one, that once was just one. Ed Yong does a thorough job of explaining this 
