The periodical cicada, known scientifically as Magicicada septendecim, is closely related to common cicadas, which appear every year. The common cicadas, called harvest flies and dog-day cicadas, appear later in the season than the periodical, and the adults live longer. Their whirring song, which is slightly similar to that of the periodical cicadas, but has less variation in the notes, is a "lazy" sound that we associate with the languorous days of late summer.
Cicadas have a beak for piercing plant tissue and drawing sap into their bodies. They are large relatives of leafhoppers, aphids, scales, and other sucking insects.
Some Misconceptions
The dramatic and bizarre elements in the life cycle of the periodical cicada have caused the insect to be regarded, not only with curiosity, but also with superstition and fear.
Even before the white man came to North America, the Indians thought its periodic appearance had an evil significance.
Early American colonists had never seen the periodical cicada. They were familiar with the Biblical story of locust plagues in Egypt, but were not sure what kind of insect the story referred to. When the cicadas appeared suddenly by the millions, some of the colonists thought a "locust plague" had been visited upon them.
To some extent the confusion between cicadas and locusts exists today; cicadas are commonly called locusts. The term "locust" is correctly applied only to certain species of grasshoppers. Migratory locusts, which comprise one of these species, ruined crops in Egypt in Biblical times. They still damage crops in that country and in many other parts of the world.
Even when the periodical cicada is not confused with some other insect, its appearance in overwhelming numbers arouses fear that crops will be destroyed. But the cicada does not feed on foliage of any kind. If the adults feed at all, they do so by inserting their beaks in bark and sucking juice. Although the adults cause no feeding damage, the adult females make injurious punctures in twigs and limbs of trees and bushes with their egg-laying apparatus.
A false belief that is much less widely held today than formerly is that the distinct black W toward the outer end of the front wings foretells war. The mark is a characteristic of the species, and is produced by deeper pigmentation of the veins.
The cicada cannot sting, and any story is mythical that tells of cicadas poisoning fruit by stinging it.