"The Cicada Swarm of 2021," The Atlantic

(Grant Heilman / Alamy)

Just in case you missed the news—say you’ve been living underground for the past 17 years—parts of the eastern United States are in for a cicada summer, wherein billions of the bugs emerge en masse to fly around, mate, and then die.

I live in California, which is not exactly cicada territory. But I also live on the internet, and know that, after a year of plague, Americans can’t stop talking about them.

This Friday, we present to you three fun facts about these fantastic creatures, to sharpen your understanding as we head toward Peak Cicada:

1. They find strength in numbers.

Swarming is an evolutionary strategy: “So many come out at once that even the most gluttonous predators can’t nom the bugs into extinction,” Katherine J. Wu reports.

2. They contain multitudes.

“Every 17-year cicada … is effectively dozens of organisms in a single body,” my colleague Ed Yong reports. The insects can’t survive without the bacteria that live inside them, but their relationship with these microbes has become absurdly complicated and unwieldy.

3. They are threatened by a parasite that effectively drugs them.

As Ed memorably puts it: “Imagine emerging into the sun after 17 long years spent lying underground, only for your butt to fall off.”

Have cicada questions? Tell us.