H. Scott Hoffman/News & Record, via Associated Press In the New York metropolitan area, the cicada population is expected to peak over the next two weeks.If you’re a 17-year cicada, chances are good that you’re having the time of your life right now. Enjoy it while you can â€" it will last only a few more weeks.
Cicada Brood II, one of the largest, has been emerging after 17 years underground to mate (and die), and from Connecticut to the northern tip of Georgia, the air has been abuzz and the woods and grass crunchy with one- to two-inch-long insects with big red eyes and transparent wings.
In the New York region, the cicada emergence is expected to peak this week and next, possibly into the third week of June. The bugs are not too numerous in New York City itself, except on Staten Island (and at an exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History), but they are in abundance elsewhere, as you can see on several sites that map cicada sightings.
While the once-in-a-generation phenomenon is upon us, you may have questions about our cicada neighbors. Here to answer them is Louis N. Sorkin, an entomologist at the natural history museum.
Mr. Sorkin, who has worked at the museum since 1978, is known for his expertise in spiders and bedbugs, but he is no slouch in the cicada department. So submit your questions as comments on this article, and Mr. Sorkin will field them.
