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The cicadas are here! Why US researchers are swarming to study them

Two particular broods of the insects are popping up together for the first time in two centuries, and there’s a lot we don’t know about them.
  1. Sumeet Kulkarni
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Researchers collect Cicada specimens in the woods with nets and tools at Allerton Park in Monticello, Illinois, U.S.

Researchers Sierra Raglin (left) and Katie Dana (right) collect cicada specimens at a park in Monticello, Illinois on 30 May. Credit: AJ Mast for Nature

The emergence is in full swing. Periodical cicadas (Magicicada) are crawling out of the ground in vast numbers — in their trillions, maybe — across swathes of the southeastern and midwestern United States. And researchers, many of whom usually study other insects, are dropping everything to race to sites where they’ve popped up, eager to collect samples and observe the ecological spectacle.

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Nature 630, 19 (2024)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-024-01584-6

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