ACRES Land Trust

ACRES Virtual Hike of Kokiwanee Nature Preserve
Arrival of the Brood X Cicada -- May 2004
Photos by Tim Kimmel

The Salamonie Gorge is near the northern edge of the territory of brood X ("ten" not "ex"), one of at least twelve broods of the seventeen year cicada (aka seventeen year locust). The nymphs remain under the earth for seventeen years, feeding from the roots of trees. During their seventeenth year they emerge from the ground to shed their outer skin, mate, lay eggs and die, leaving the next generation to start its own seventeen-year cycle.

Visitors to Kokiwanee experienced the last mass emergence starting in the last week of May 2004. Small holes and mounds were all over certain wooded areas of the preserve and the movement of so many nymphs climbing the trees sounded like a soft rainfall. Shells left by the thousands of cicadas were to be seen everywhere, on the outermost branches of every tree and the top of every other structure. The males went to the tops of the trees to call for mates, their chirping rising and lowering in unison. By their second week the noise was deafening.

By late June the mating was done and most of the cicadas had died. The only remaining evidence of their visit were the many dead twigs and branches on every tree standing near an open area, This damage is caused by the females slitting the twigs to lay their eggs. The patches of dead leaves on the trees looked like they had been visited by a massive infestation. The eggs would hatch and a new generation of brood X cicadas would burrow into the ground to feed for another seventeen years.

Of the periodical cicadas (magicicada), three with a seventeen year cycle are known to be in Indiana, mostly brood X which arrived in 2004, some brood XIII will appear only in the extreme north in 2007, and some brood XIV in scattered places all south of the Wabash River in 2008. One brood with a thirteen year cycle, brood XXIII, will emerge only in the far southwestern tip of the state in 2015.

The periodical cicadas (magicicada) in Indiana appear in May and June. The have red eyes and orange on their wings. The annual cicadas (tibicen) appear from late June through as late as October. They have black eyes and green on their wings.

The next emergence of the brood X cicada will occur in 2021.