EAST LANSING, MI — A Michigan State University expert says for the first time in more than 200 years, two broods of cicadas – Brood XIX, known as the Great Southern Brood, and Brood XIII, known as the Northern Illinois Brood – will emerge from the ground simultaneously. However, we won’t be seeing them in mid-Michigan.
Hannah Burrack, professor chair of the Department of Entomology at MSU, says the cicadas start emerging when the soil temperature is greater than 64 degrees Fahrenheit. In most of the range for the two broods, from Iowa and Illinois and stretching south, that should happen in April and May.
In Michigan, we will see the “dog-day” cicadas that we see nearly every late summer. For insects, Burrack says they are large at 1 to 2 inches long, triangular-shaped with large eyes, small bristle-like antennae and four clear wings with distinctive dark veins.
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