More than 3,000 species of sap-sucking bugs with wide-set eyes and clear wings, living in trees in temperate and tropical places worldwide. Males make very loud songs by buckling drum-like tymbals. Most species appear every year, but North America's periodical cicadas emerge together every 13 or 17 years.
Quick answers
What is it?Insect
Carnivore?No, herbivore
Dangerous?No
Domesticated?No
Awake when?Daytime
Hibernates?No
Kept as a pet?No
Do people eat it?In places
Eaten in various parts of the world, including China, Myanmar, Malaysia, central Africa and parts of Mexico.
At a glance
Found inWorldwide
HabitatForest
ColoursBlack, Green, Orange
SizeTiny
LengthWingspan up to about 20 cm (Malaysian emperor cicada)
Legs6
Covered inExoskeleton
Lives inblooms
Lives for2–17 years
Can fly
Lays eggs
In the wild
- Where it lives
- Temperate to tropical regions around the world; periodical cicadas live only in North America.
- What it eats
- Watery sap from the xylem of trees and other plants, sucked up through a sharp, beak-like mouthpart.
Did you know
Some broods spend 17 years underground, then all emerge in the same few days.
Desert cicadas can cool down by sweating excess sap out through pores in their backs.
The Australian greengrocer cicada is among the loudest insects in the world.
Often confused with
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