Insects 4th grade
Cicada
By Makayla
Have you ever heard a buzzing sound in the summer? If you are thinking of a bee you are wrong. It’s a cicada! There is a lot to learn about cicadas. Cicadas are very interesting.
The cicada’s body is unique to other insects. A cicada’s body can be green, yellow, orange, and little drops of blue, or it can camouflage with a tree by their color of brown. A cicada has dark red, beady eyes and a wing span of almost 8 inches long and 1 inch wide! Cicadas have wide heads and short bristle like antennae. So now that you know what a cicada looks like, maybe you can find one yourself!
In this segment you will learn about where the cicada lives. The nymph of a cicada lives underground. When they pop out from the ground they are adult cicadas. They climb up the nearest tree to hide from predators. When adults lay eggs, they’re put in a hole in a tree so other insects don’t eat them. Most of the time cicadas live in dry, humid weather in the Southern part of the U. S. A. G o outside and see if you can find a cicada!
Here you will learn how a cicada survives. Most people in the world eat cicadas. They think they are a tasty dessert. Cicadas don’t bite or sting. The “cicada killer wasp” will most likelly kill and eat a cicada. To protect itself, a cicada will make a loud buzzing sound to scare off the predators. Only males can make this buzzing sound. Now you know how a cicada survives.
A cicada changes many times to reach its final adult stage. After an adult cicada mates and lays eggs it dies. The eggs hatch within 6 to7 weeks. As many as 20,000 to 40,000 cicadas may emerge at one time under one single, large tree. An adult can live for 30 to 40 days. A cicada has a complete metamorphosis.
Can you believe how much there is to learn about cicadas? Well, I only told you a quarter of the story. I can’t wait to see a cicada in real life! I bet you can’t either.
cited sources: www.grolier.com (Encyclopedia Americana)
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