Genus Magicicada - Periodical Cicadas

17-year locusts, 13-year locusts. (Note that true locusts are grasshoppers.)

Magicicada W.T. Davis, 1925. (See Remarks for discussion of taxonomy.)

Presumably from Latin magi(s) more, to a greater extent, plus Latin cicada, a cicada or tree-cricket (1) (Latin Dictionary). (Most members of this genus were originally placed in Cicada Linnaeus, 1758.)

Checklist of Cicadas North of Mexico, and magicicada.org list 7 species.

17-year species:

13-year species:

See Remarks and Life cycle below on relationships among the 13-year and 17-year species.

Coloration distinctive: body is mostly black, red to orangish-red eyes, yellow-orange wing veins. Noted for mass-emergence of adults and the formation of choruses of singing males on a 17-year or 13-year period. Unmistakable as a genus--details of underside of abdomen (and male courtship song) can help identify species.

How To Identify the Species of a Periodical Cicada - Cicada Mania (YouTube)

Eastern North America. Active broods (2013):

  

17-year broods are more northern (below, left), 13-year broods more southern (below, right):

  

Deciduous forests

Adults fly in late spring, typically late April to early June; generally earlier than other cicada genera.

use a significant number of trees as host plants, primarily ovipositing in deciduous trees. (3)

Unique life-cycle, with almost all individuals emerging as adults after 13-year or 17-year period as nymphs. Members of a given brood in a particular area tend to emerge over a very short period, resulting in high population densities for a limited time. Males form huge "choruses" in deciduous trees--the numbers are so great that the noise can be painful to human ears.

There are four species with 13-year and three species with 17-year life cycles. The 13-year species are more southern, the 17-year species more northern. There are a number of broods, or "year-classes", whose members emerge in the same year in the same geographic area. (Specifically, there are currently 12 broods of 17-year cicadas, and 3 broods of 13-year cicadas, with some additional broods known historically that appear to be extinct--see magicicada.org.) Entomologists have a standard numbering system using Roman Numerals to designate these broods (Marlatt, 1907). A given brood typically contains members of all three species with the same life-cycle (13-year or 17-year). The brood populations appear to be relatively stable, and several have been tracked via historical records--in one case, (brood XIV, a 17-year brood) back to 1634 (Lyche, Periodical Cicadas).

There are various hypotheses for the length of the life-cycle (13 or 17 years). Prime number-based cycle may help the cicadas to evade tracking by cycling populations of predators and/or parasites. In addition, populations may converge on prime number-length cycles due to statistical effects (Cox and Carleton, 1998; Goles et al., 2001; Yoshimura, 1997).

There are three sets of sibling species within this genus, indicated by the species name suffixes: -decim, -cassini, and -decula. Each group has both 17-year and 13-year cycling populations, and these are traditionally treated as separate species. The closest relative of each Magicicada species is/are its relative(s) with the alternate life cycle (magicicada.org). The groups are:

An alternative interpretation of these relationships is that there are but three species (more-or-less) in the genus, with differing life-cycle forms for each. This is an ongoing area of research--see magicicada.org for a discussion.

The two -decula species seem to be much less common than the -decim and -cassini species.

To further complicate matters, Magicicada species have multimodal life-cycle patterns spanning −4 to +4 yrs in both 13- and 17-yr cicadas. (4)

Massospora cicadina (aka flying saltshaker fungus) is a zygomycete fungus that attaches to the nymphs of this genus before emergence. The hyphae grow throughout the host's body and its abdomen fills with conidia. The fungus produces a psilocybin (a psychedelic) and cathinone (an amphetamine) so the host spends its last day frenetically flying and attempting to copulate, spreading the fungus to a secondary host. The fungus produces sexual spores in this secondary host then remains dormant for 13-17 years. When this infected host emerges, their terminal ends fall off and as they fly they sprinkle the spores around.(5)

Okanagana species--some with similar coloration, though lacking red eyes

Alexander, R.D., and T.E. Moore. 1962. The evolutionary relationships of 17-year and 13-year cicadas, and three new species (Homoptera, Cicadidae, Magicicada). Univ. of Mich. Mus. Zool. Misc. Pub. 121: 1-59. (6)

Cox, R.T., and C.E. Carlton. 1998. A commentary on prime numbers and life cycles of periodical cicadas. Am. Nat. 152: 162-164 (JSTOR).

Goles, E., Schulz, O. and Markus, M. 2001. Prime number selection of cycles in a predator-prey model. Complexity, 6: 33–38. doi: 10.1002/cplx.1040

Marlatt, C.L. 1907. The Periodical Cicada. (archive.org link)

Marshall, D. C., Hill, K. B. R., Cooley, J. R. 2017. Multimodal life-cycle variation in 13- and 17-year periodical cicadas (Hemiptera: Cicadidae: Magicicada). Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society 90: 211-226. (4)

Sanborn, A.F. and P.K. Phillips. 2013. Biogeography of the Cicadas (Hemiptera: Cicadidae) of North America, North of Mexico. Diversity 5(2): 166–239. (3)

Simon, C. 1988. Evolution of 13- and 17-year periodical cicadas. Bulletin of the Entomological Society of America 34: 163-176.

Yoshimura, J. 1997. The evolutionary origins of periodical cicadas during ice ages. Am. Nat. 149: 112-124 (abstract).

Singing Insects of North America

Univ. Michigan--excellent life history discussion, very spiffy table of broods (link updated 1 May 2011)

Mating call sound files for both M. cassini and M. septendecula on Gerry Bunker's Brood X stragglers gallery page--scroll to the bottom

http://www.magicicada.org/--John R. Cooley's site, with extensive scientific information on this genus (link dead as of 5/7/24)

Selected North American Cicada Species--Dr. Chris Simon, includes discussions of taxonomy, life cycles

Periodical Cicadas1 ("The 13-Year Locusts") in Alabama--L.L. Hyche, Auburn University

2011 Brood XIX--here on BugGuide

How To Identify the Species of a Periodical Cicada - Cicada Mania (YouTube)