Pharaoh cicada

Magicicada septendecim · The Pharaoh cicada is the largest and most northern 17-year periodical cicada, native to Canada and the United States.

Also called 17-year locust, Decim periodical cicada.

Pharaoh cicada
Photo: Jbjensen1, CC BY 4.0
Pharaoh cicada
Photo: Judy Gallagher, CC BY 2.0
Pharaoh cicada
Photo: Judy Gallagher, CC BY 2.0

Taxonomy

KingdomAnimalia
PhylumArthropoda
ClassInsecta
OrderHemiptera
FamilyCicadidae
GenusMagicicada
SpeciesMagicicada septendecim

Where it lives

Deciduous forests of the eastern United States.

Fun facts

  • The male's high-pitched mating call is said to sound like someone calling "weeeee-whoa" or "Pharaoh".
  • It has reddish eyes and wing veins, a black upper thorax, and broad orange stripes on the underside of its abdomen.
  • After hatching from eggs laid in tree twigs, the young insects run down to the ground and enter the first opening they can find.
  • Thomas Jefferson noted the 17-year cycle in his Garden Book in 1775, when the cicadas emerged again at Monticello.

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Facts and taxonomy adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).