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I went to Princeton Battlefield State Park on May 27, 28 and June 1, 2, 2004 to catch the action of Magicicada Brood X
Here are the holes the nymphs emerge from after 17 years underground. They feed on the sap in tree roots and burrow 2 to 24 inches underground.
Here is an adult Magicicada septendecim on one of the battlefield displays.
Different angle.
Third view.
I heard this buzzing on my head. Turned out to be a male who landed on my hat. Only the males make noise.
He liked my hat.
A few live adults among many nymph shells.
Closeup of a nymph shell.
A fully emerged adult in the teneral stage. You can eat them when they are like this. They say they taste like cold canned asparagus.
A nymph emerging.
The shell just split!
Just out of the shell and can't let go!
Emerging.
Emerging 2.
Emerging 3.
Notice the different wing shapes.
Cicada in the grass.
On a twig.
Group shot.
A two headed cicada?
Mating!
Mating 2.
Group shot 2.
Mating 3.
Mating 4.
After mating the female will cut grooves in tree twigs. She will lay 20-30 eggs in each cut and lay 400-600 eggs total. The eggs hatch in 4-6 weeks. The ant sized nymph drops to the ground, burrows in and feeds on root sap for 17 years.
The next time they are due to emerge is the year 2021.
These photos were taken with my Canon PowerShot A70 digital camera. Images were cropped, compressed and reduced to make them easy to view on the web.
Copyright 2004 by Kip Burnett.
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