The genus Magicicada contains six species, three with a 17-year life-cycle and three with a 13-year life-cycle. Each 17-year species has a sibling species with the shorter life-cycle. The two species share very similar physical traits, calls and songs, and behaviors. The sibling species of Magicicada septendecim is Magicicada tredecim (Cooley and Marshall 1997).
Although periodical cicadas are not commonly mentioned as threatened species, there is documentation of individuals possibly being harmed by human effects on the environment. During an emergence in a front yard in Chicago in 1990, many of the cicadas had very deformed wings. The use of lawn chemicals was one of the possible explantions for the deformities(Cooley and Marshall 1997). This species is listed as lower risk by the IUCN.
US Federal List: no special status
CITES: no special status
State of Michigan List: no special status
IUCN Red List of Threatened Species: lower risk - near threatened
A periodical cicada chorus can become remarkably loud, and is thereby a nuisance to humans. The sheer numbers of a brood can also cause problems, as cicadas fluttering into cars and frightening drivers have caused automobile accidents. The most serious problem related to periodical cicadas is damage to trees. When female Magicicadas cut slits and lay eggs in twigs, the twigs may split, whither, and die. This problem, known as flagging, is not serious for mature trees, but it can greatly harm young trees. Thus, it is recomended that in areas of Magicicada broods, trees not be planted during the year before an expected emergence (Road 1991).
The very long life cycle and emergence in broods of Magicicada septendecim and related species is a relatively unique and fascinating phenomenon, and is heavily studied by the scientific community.
Magicicada septendecim spends the vast majority of its 17-year life underground, in several juvenile stages, where it feeds by sucking juices from the roots of plants, especially deciduous trees (Boyer 1996). Although the majority of time during the adult portion of the cicada's life is spent engaging in reproductive behavior, the adults do feed by sucking fluids out of trees (Cooley and Marshall 1997).
Periodical cicadas (members of the genus Magicicada) are only found in the United States, east of the Great Plains. Magicicada septendecim is found in the eastern, western, and especially northern parts of this area, thus being primarily located in the northern midwestern and eastern United States (Simon 1996).
Biogeographic Regions: nearctic (Native )
The majority of the life of Magicicada septendecim is spent in an underground or subterranean habitat. The area in which a periodical cicada brood is located must contain a large population of deciduous trees, on whose roots the cicadas feed during the underground nymph stages. The trees are also necesary for the molt into adulthood, choruses, and egg-laying (Boyer 1996).
Habitat Regions: temperate ; terrestrial
Terrestrial Biomes: forest
Other Habitat Features: suburban
Like all adult members of the Magicicada genus, Magicicada septendecim is black in color and about 1.5 inches in length. Its eyes and legs are generally reddish-orange, and the wings are clear with orange veins. Magicicada septendecim is the largest Magicicada species. Characteristics that distinguish the species from other Magicicada species include broad orange stripes on the abdominal underside and an orange spot on the side of the thorax (Road 1991, Cooley and Marshall 1997).
Other Physical Features: ectothermic ; bilateral symmetry
The17-year life cycle of Magicicada septendecim is of critical importance to its reproductive behavior. All members of the genus Magicicada remain in groups known as broods. In the case of M. septendecim, single brood emerges from underground together once every 17 years . In a year when a given brood has emerged to reproduce, female Magicicada septendecim mature and lay eggs in the twigs of trees. Hatching occurs during the middle of the summer, and the nymphs burrow one to three meters underground. Magicicada septendecim nymphs remain underground for 17 years, feeding and going through several juvenile stages. In the spring of the 17th year, the nymphs build exit tunnels, and generally emerge during the month of May. An entire brood sometimes emerges during one night. The nymphs then attach themselves to the bark of a nearby tree and undergo one final molt, becoming adults. Within four or five days of emergence, the males form singing choruses, as the females wait nearby. The males alternate between singing and flying until they find a female of their species willing to mate. Mating is achieved through copulation, and both males and females generally mate with several partners during the period. After a female has mated, she uses her needle-like egg-laying mechanism, called an ovipositor, to make small slits in twigs, where the eggs are to be layed. A single female can lay up to 500 eggs, and after this process, the female drops to the ground and dies. Neither the male nor the female lives past early July. The new nymphs, about 2.5 mm in length, hatch and journey to the ground, and the 17-year cycle begins anew (Cooley and Marshall 1997, Boyer 1996, Alexander 1990).
Magicicada septendecim is known from Connecticut, District of Columbia, Delaware, Georgia, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, North Carolina, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, Wisconsin, and West Virginia (U.S.A.) (Sanborn & Phillips 2013).
From North Carolina to Connecticut, billions of creatures with eyes the color of blood and bodies the color of coal are crawling out of the earth...
Magicicada septendecim, sometimes called the Pharaoh cicada or the 17-year locust, is native to Canada and the United States and is the largest and most northern species of periodical cicada with a 17-year lifecycle.[3]
Like other species included in Magicicada, the insect's eyes and wing veins are reddish and its dorsal thorax is black. It is distinguished by broad orange stripes on its abdomen and a unique, high-pitched song said to resemble someone calling "weeeee-whoa" or "Pharaoh",[4] features it shares with the newly discovered 13-year species Magicicada neotredecim.[5]
Because of similarities between M. septendecim and the two closely related 13-year species M. neotredecim and M. tredecim, the three species are often described together as "decim periodical cicadas."
Their median life cycle from egg to natural adult death is around seventeen years. However, their life cycle can range between thirteen and twenty-one years.[6]
Historical accounts cite reports of 15- to 17-year recurrences of enormous numbers of noisy emergent cicadas ("locusts") written as early as 1733.[7][8] John Bartram, a noted Philadelphia botanist and horticulturist, was among the early writers that described the insect's life cycle, appearance and characteristics.[9]
On May 9, 1715, the Rev. Andreas Sandel, the pastor of Philadelphia's "Gloria Dei" Swedish Lutheran Church, described in his journal an emergence of Magicicada's Brood X.[10] Pehr Kalm, a Finnish naturalist visiting Pennsylvania and New Jersey in 1749 on behalf of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, observed in late May another emergence of that brood.[11][12] When reporting the event in a paper that a Swedish academic journal published in 1756, Kalm wrote:
The general opinion is that these insects appear in these fantastic numbers in every seventeenth year. Meanwhile, except for an occasional one which may appear in the summer, they remain underground.
There is considerable evidence that these insects appear every seventeenth year in Pennsylvania.[12]
Kalm then described Rev. Sandel's report and one that he had obtained from Benjamin Franklin that had recorded in Philadelphia the emergence from the ground of large numbers of cicadas during early May 1732. He noted that the people who had prepared these documents had made no such reports in other years.[12]
Kalm further noted that others had informed him that they had seen cicadas only occasionally before the insects emerged from the ground in Pennsylvania in large swarms on May 22, 1749.[12] He additionally stated that he had not heard any cicadas in Pennsylvania and New Jersey in 1750 in the same months and areas in which he had heard many in 1749.[12] The 1715 and 1732 reports, when coupled with his own 1749 and 1750 observations, supported the previous "general opinion" that he had cited.
Kalm summarized his findings in a book translated into English and published in London in 1771,[13] stating:
There are a kind of Locusts which about every seventeen years come hither in incredible numbers ... In the interval between the years when they are so numerous, they are only seen or heard single in the woods.[7][14]
Based on Kalm's account and a specimen that Kalm had provided, in 1758 Carl Linnaeus named the insect Cicada septendecim in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae.[3][15]
In 1766, Moses Bartram described in his Observations on the cicada, or locust of America, which appears periodically once in 16 or 17 years the next appearance of the brood (Brood X) that Kalm had observed in 1749. Bartram noted that upon hatching from eggs deposited in the twigs of trees, the young insects ran down to the earth and "entered the first opening that they could find". He reported that he had been able to discover them 10 feet (3 m) below the surface, but that others had reportedly found them 30 feet (9 m) deep.[16]
In 1775, Thomas Jefferson recorded in his "Garden Book" Brood II's 17-year periodicity, writing that an acquaintance remembered "great locust years" in 1724 and 1741, that he and others recalled another such year in 1758 and that the insects had again emerged from the ground at Monticello in 1775. He noted that the females lay their eggs in the small twigs of trees while above ground.[17]
In April 1800, Benjamin Banneker, who lived near Ellicott's Mills, Maryland, wrote in his record book that he recalled a "great locust year" in 1749, a second in 1766 during which the insects appeared to be "full as numerous as the first", and a third in 1783 (Brood X). He predicted that the insects "may be expected again in the year 1800, which is seventeen years since their third appearance to me".[18]
Magicicada septendecim, sometimes called the Pharaoh cicada or the 17-year locust, is native to Canada and the United States and is the largest and most northern species of periodical cicada with a 17-year lifecycle.
