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Cicadas Appearing (Years) Early On Staten Island
By
Jen Chung
Published Jun 4, 2009
Modified Jun 4, 2009
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By
Jen Chung
Published Jun 4, 2009
Modified Jun 4, 2009
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Cicadas, those buzzing insects that reappear every 17 years, have made an early visit to some parts of Staten Island. The Staten Island Advance reports, "Some of the obnoxiously loud insects have been seen, and heard, in Wolfe's Pond Park in Huguenot and in Great Kills backyards in recent weeks, even though the rest of what is known as Brood II isn't scheduled to arrive until 2013." An entomologist says, "This is the fifth brood where part of it is coming out early. When you have a phenomenon that is that widespread, the most likely candidate is some kind of climate-driven response." The cicadas spend 17 years underground, only emerging to mate—but when they do emerge, it's thousands, if not millions of cicadas at once. See this video from Planet Earth.
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cicada
cicadas
insects
science
staten island
Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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