If you live in Ohio, West Virginia, or their neighbors, you're experiencing one of the planet's entomological miracles: periodical cicadas.
Depending on the "brood" (this year's is Brood V), periodical cicadas coordinate their life cycles over 13 or 17 years. Brood V are 17-year cicadas, which means they were born in 1999 and have spent the years buried underground, sucking the juice out of plant roots — in fact, they're North America's longest-living insect. Now, they're emerging, singing to mates, mating, laying eggs, and dying, all over the course of a few short weeks.
Their offspring will emerge again in 2033...
