Brood X - WikiHQ

thumb|right|upright=1.2|An adult Brood X cicada in [[Princeton, New Jersey (June 7, 2004)]]

Brood X (Brood 10), the Great Eastern Brood, is one of 15 broods of periodical cicadas that appear regularly throughout the eastern United States. The brood's first major emergence after 2021 is predicted to occur during 2038.

Characteristics

thumb|right|upright=1.2|Map of periodic cicada broods with Brood X shown in yellow.

Every 17 years, Brood X cicada nymphs tunnel upwards en masse to emerge from the surface of the ground. The insects then shed their exoskeletons on trees and other surfaces, thus becoming adults. The mature cicadas fly, mate, lay eggs in twigs, and then die within several weeks. The combination of the insects' long underground life, their nearly simultaneous emergence from the ground in vast numbers and their short period of adulthood allows the brood to survive even massive predation. The brood contains three species, Magicicada septendecim, Magicicada cassini and Magicicada septendecula, that congregate on different trees and have different male songs.

File:Brood X Cicada Nymphs.jpg|alt=Photo of Brood X Cicada Nymphs emerging from holes in the ground in Druid Hill Park, Baltimore, Maryland|Brood X nymphs emerging in Druid Hill Park, Baltimore, Maryland (May 13, 2021)

File:Brood X emergence turrets.jpg|Mud turrets that emerging Brood X cicadas created in Potomac, Maryland near Washington, D.C. (June 30, 2021)

File:2021-05-15 20 35 58 Brood X periodical cicada nymph on a plant.jpg|A Brood X cicada nymph in Bethesda, Maryland near Washington, D.C. (May 5, 2021)

File:Cicada Nymphs Climbing Up A Cedar Tree 2021-05-25.webm|Brood X cicada nymphs climbing a cedar tree in Bethesda, Maryland (May 25, 2021) (video)

File:17 year cicada Brood X two cicada nymphs final molt 2021.webm|A timelapse of two teneral Brood X cicadas molting in Bethesda, Maryland (May 17, 2021)

File:2021-05-15 22 53 59 multiple molting cicadas Brood X periodical cicada.jpg|Molting Brood X cicadas on a milkweed plant in Bethesda, Maryland (May 15, 2021)

File:Brood X cicada Columbus Ohio 05212021.jpg|An adult Brood X cicada and exuviae in Columbus, Ohio (May 21, 2021)

File:2004May21-Cicada (1).JPG|An emergent Brood X swarm and exuviae in Finneytown, Ohio near Cincinnati (May 21, 2004)

File:2004May21-Cicada (6).JPG|Detail of emergent swarm in Finneytown, Ohio

File:Magicicada ovipositing.jpg|A Brood X cicada ovipositing eggs in a tree branch near Baltimore, Maryland (May 26, 2021)

</gallery>

History

1700s emergences

The first known description of an emergence of Brood X appeared in a May 9, 1715, entry in the journal of Rev. Andreas Sandel, the pastor of Philadelphia's "Gloria Dei" Swedish Lutheran Church. In 1737, botanist John Bartram wrote a letter that described the periodicity of the brood's emergences and his 1732 observations of the insect's insertion of their eggs into the small branches of trees northwest of Philadelphia. Bartram later recorded in greater detail within two manuscripts the brood's May 1749 emergence.

Pehr Kalm, a Finnish naturalist visiting Pennsylvania and New Jersey in 1749 on behalf of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, observed in late May that year's emergence of Brood X. When reporting the event in a paper that a Swedish academic journal published in 1756, Kalm wrote: