Cicada Crew UMD

Have you seen any blue, orange, or white eyed cicadas? Red eyes are the most common periodical cicada eye color, but approximately every one and a million has a genetic variation causing an eye color variation. When cicadas are nymphs underground, they possess white eyes, with no pigment. The year of emergence, the cicadas’ eye color changes. What color cicada eyes do you see? Tag us or send us photos of cicadas! First cicada 📸 by .

Sauteed nymph cicadas with grits and wildflower salad and skewed adult cicadas with Old Bay Seasoning! Yummy!

Brood X Cicadas are starting to emerge — now is the time to make Cicada Emergence Cookies! Don’t they look delicious? The cookies in these photos were baked by Cicada Crew member .michael. Photo credit:

Check out the Cicada Cookbook located on our resources page for cicada emergence cookies and other great recipes!
Link: bit.ly/3tOCwzU

May and June 2021 are officially Magicicada months! Let's spread the good news and awareness about this spectacular event!

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Ever wonder why cicadas only emerge in certain areas?

There are 15 broods of periodical cicadas that emerge in different geographical regions at intervals of 13 or 17 years. Almost every year there is a brood of cicadas that emerges somewhere in the eastern half of the United States. Cicada presence may be patchy based on historical changes in patterns of land use. Deforestation for agriculture or urbanization may eliminate local populations of cicadas. Patterns of glaciation in the eastern North America over millennia likely affected their distributions. ​

You may see some cicadas with their abdomens missing during the Brood X emergence. This yellow substance in place of the abdomen is a spore plug created by a fungus called Massospora cicadina. This fungus infects periodical cicadas and can be sexually transmitted between adult cicadas or transmitted from spores that drop to the soil, infecting the next generation of nymphal cicadas underground. Even though the fungus removes the cicadas’ abdomen, infected adult cicadas can still walk and fly around. The fungus does eventually kill the cicada. What’s interesting is this fungus is the only known predator/pathogen synchronized to the periodical cicadas’ life cycle!!

How many eggs do adult female Magicicada lay?

They lay between 400-600 eggs in batches of 20-30. They eggs are laid on young, pencil thin, branches of trees and shrubs. The eggs will then hatch 6-8 weeks later.