Periodical Cicada

Periodical cicada is the common name for any of the seven species of the genus Magicicada native to eastern North America, known for the thirteen-year and seventeen-year cicadas. They are called periodical because nearly every individual in a local population is developmentally synchronized to emerge in the same year. Although sometimes called locusts, this is a misnomer: cicadas belong to the order Hemiptera, while true locusts are grasshoppers of the order Orthoptera. Magicicada belongs to the cicada tribe Lamotialnini, a group with representatives in Australia, Africa and Asia as well as the Americas.