If you’ve ever spent the spring or early summer months in the Midwest or eastern United States, you have probably heard the buzzing songs of the cicada. These noisy bugs can be intimidatingly large – up to two inches long with a four-inch wingspan – but they’re harmless to people, pets, household gardens, and crops. And they’re feared to now be extinct here in Bermuda.
The Bermuda Cicada, also known as the Bermuda Singer, used to be pretty common. It’s believed Bermuda’s cicadas were dependent on the Bermuda cedar trees to survive. After the blight wiped out the cedar forests in the 1940s, the cicadas began to disappear, too. The few that managed to survive were eaten by the introduced Kiskadee.
Cicadas have a very long life cycle. They lay eggs in the bark of trees, and after the nymph (baby cicada) hatches, it drops to the ground to find food. It can spend up to 17 years in the nymph stage, burrowing into the soil where it finds tree roots full of sap it then sucks up through its straw-like mouthparts. Once fully grown, it tunnels to the surface, sheds its outer skin, and emerges as an adult with wings. The males fly off to land in trees where they spend their afternoons and evenings buzzing to attract females.
Unfortunately, the Bermuda cicadas’ buzzing hasn’t been heard since the 1990s on Nonsuch Island.
