There are at least three certainties in life: death, taxes and the periodic emergence of millions of cicadas. But one big cicada uncertainty has finally been put to rest — the question of whether the adult insects eat.
Periodical cicadas (Magicicada spp.) live in various broods across the eastern United States. Every 13 or 17 years, depending on the brood, adult cicadas emerge from the ground en masse and embark on a four-to-six-week saga of mating and laying eggs on young trees before dying. When the baby cicadas hatch, they fall to the ground, burrow into the earth and feed on plant roots until they’re ready for the next
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