A Cicada’s Guide to Periodical Romance

Key Facts

• But to the participants, mating is a delicate, sonorous affair, fraught with potential missteps — and fungal zombies.
• After years underground, periodical cicadas — insects of the genus Magicicada — are emerging by the trillions across more than a dozen states to molt, sing, court and mate.
• A casual human listener could mistake their collective chorus for the sound of a U.F.O. landing: A Cicada’s Guide to Periodical Romance - The New York Times But to the individual cicada, what’s underway is a courtship ritual as intimate and intricate as a tango.
• Their songs — like those of Magicicada septendecim and Magicicada neotredecim, below — can sound deceptively similar: A Cicada’s Guide to Periodical Romance - The New York Times ?

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