Feature Animals

Cicadas’ odd life cycle poses evolutionary conundrums

cicada

MYSTERY IN SYNCHRONY A cicada emerges pale, soft and vulnerable from its hardened old husk to cope with life aboveground for the first time in 17 years.

Tom Siegfried

By Susan Milius

- More than 2 years ago

After 17 years underground, throngs of ruby-eyed cicadas clawed up through the soil this year to partake in a once-in-a-lifetime, synchronized mating frenzy.