A cicada is any of several insects of the order Homoptera with small eyes wide apart on the head and transparent well-veined wings.

Male cicadas have loud noisemakers called "tymbals" on their sides. They modulate their noise by wiggling their abdomens toward and away from the tree that they are on. The best-known genus is Magicicada, the so-called "seventeen-year locust" (not a locust at all; locusts belong to Orthoptera) or periodical cicada. These cicadas spend thirteen or seventeen years in the ground, then emerge.

Periodical cicadas are grouped into thirty broods, based on the year they emerge. Broods I-XVII are the seventeen-year cicadas; Broods XVIII-XXX are the thirteen-year cicadas. Some broods are not known to exist, but they are retained in the numbering scheme for convenience. Brood IX emerged in 2003. The next thirteen-year brood to emerge will be Brood XIX in 2011.

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