Brood IX

Brood IX (Brood 9), is one of 15 broods of periodical cicadas that appear regularly throughout the United States in 13 or 17-year intervals. Seventeen-year Brood IX is concentrated in Virginia, West Virginia, and North Carolina.^[1]

Every 17 years in select locations in the eastern US, cicadas tunnel en masse to the surface of the ground, mate, lay eggs, and then die off in several weeks. The combination of long dormancy, the simultaneous emergence of vast numbers, and the short period before the nymphs' burrowing underground to safety allows the brood to survive even massive predation.^[2] Brood IX remained underground in the Southern United States after emerging in 2003 and next emerged during the spring of 2020.^[3] The emergence of Brood IX will not overlap with Brood X in spring 2021.^[1]

Map of brood locations

USDA Forest Service map of periodical cicada brood locations and timing of next emergence

References

1. Bow, Humans: Trillions of Cicadas Are Going to Rule America As humans remain stuck inside or socially distanced, trillions of buzzing cicadas will burst out of the ground across the U.S. between now and summer 2021. It's already starting. Vice Media, Becky Ferreira, May 22, 2020
2. Post, Susan L. (Summer 2004). "A Trill of a Lifetime: More Information About the Periodical Cicada". Illinois Natural History Survey. Michael R. Jeffords (photos). Prairie Research Institute. Archived from the original on 2012-05-11. Retrieved 2011-07-01.
3. cicadamania.com: Brood IX - Cicada Mania, accessed 9th November 2020

External links

• Moore, Thomas E. (July 2, 2002). "Generalized distributions of extant 17-year broods of periodical cicadas". Singing Insects of North America. University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences. Archived from the original (figure) on 2008-08-28. Retrieved 2011-07-01.
• Cooley, John R. (June 2, 2020). "The 2020 periodical cicada emergence" (figure). Magicada.org. Word Press. Retrieved 2020-07-04.