Picture of a cicada skin#

Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Shed this skin An adult cicada sheds its nymphal skin on the bark on an oak tree, on at the University of Maryland campus in College Park, USA.Photo by Carolyn Kaster/AP/Shutterstock An empty shell The empty shell of a periodical cicada nymph clings to a tree after the adult insect moulted on in Takoma Park, Maryland, USA.

Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Emergence A periodical cicada begins to moult from its nymph state on in Takoma Park, Maryland, USA. Lord is part of a group of 15 students who are measuring and monitoring the area for the rise of billions of the airborne insects that have been eating and growing under ground for 17 years. The soil measured 14.4 degrees celsius, slightly cooler than necessary for the periodical cicadas from Brood X to emerge. Within a matter of weeks, these cicadas will emerge, grow into adults, breed, lay eggs and die, and won’t be seen again for another 17 years.Ĭounting down the days Colette Lord, 20, an ecology and evolution student at the University of Maryland, measures the soil temperature in a wooded area on campus on in College Park, Maryland, USA. In pictures: Brood X cicadas emerge after 17 years undergroundĮvery 17 years, members of a group of periodical cicadas (known as Brood X) start to emerge from their underground hiding-places, shedding their skins on trees and turning into adults.īillions and billions of these cicadas from 15 US states start to come to the surface when the soil above them hits a temperature of 17.7✬.

Picture of a cicada