cicadas have shriveled-up or otherwise damaged wings. Most of the time, wings become damaged during the molting process , specifically while their wings harden. Their wings, and body, are most vulnerable when they are still soft.

Periodical cicadas in the USA are famous for their unique prime-numbered life cycles of 13 and 17 years and their nearly perfectly synchronized mass emergences. Because almost all known species of cicada are non-periodical, periodicity is assumed to be a derived state. A leading hypothesis for the evolution of periodicity in Magicicada implicates the decline in average temperature during glacial periods.

Once roots are found the cicada will stay underground from 2 to 17 years depending on the species. Cicadas are active underground, tunneling and feeding. After the long 2 to 17 years, cicadas emerge from the ground as nymphs. Nymphs climb the nearest available tree, and begin to shed their nymph exoskeleton.

Critters love cicadas, and a 17 year cicada emergence is the single greatest feast of their lives. Different species of fungi have a grand time digesting dead cicada bodies once they’ve died and begin to rot. Cicadas provide trees a service by pruning the weak branches of a tree. Cicadas lay eggs in the branch, weak branches wither and die. Cicadas are a food source.

Cicadas are a food source. Many people around the world eat cicadas, and not just “on a dare”, but as a delicacy or staple food. Cicadas provide people with a job. Those people include professors and researchers, scientists, and landscapers. Cicadas provide artists and musicians with inspiration. There are bands and albums named after cicadas, and many songs inspired by cicadas.