Where do cicada nymphs spend most of their lives?

Underground feeding on root sap

Why might periodical cicadas use prime-number cycles?

To avoid syncing with predator cycles

Cicadas Quiz: Can You Get 8 Out of 10?

Some cicadas spend 17 years underground before emerging in the billions, and this cicadas quiz asks why prime numbers matter to them. Hear the deafening choruses of Brood X in the United States, summer cicadas in Japan and the insects that ancient Greece prized for their song.

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🎯 Daily Trivia Challenge • 🧠 10 Questions • ⏱️ 150 Seconds

Question 1 / 10 Time: 150s

Underground
Where do cicada nymphs spend most of their lives?
Periodic
How often do periodical cicadas emerge?
Prime
Why might periodical cicadas use prime-number cycles?
Brood X
When did the Brood X cicadas last emerge?
Loud
How loud can cicada choruses be?
Tymbals
How do male cicadas make their sound?
Shells
What are the empty shells left on trees?
Bite
Do cicadas bite or sting people?
Greece
Which ancient culture kept cicadas for their song?
Food
Which animals feast on cicada emergences?

Explanations: answer key for all 10 questions

Q1: Where do cicada nymphs spend most of their lives?
Answer: Underground feeding on root sap
Some live there for years.
Q2: How often do periodical cicadas emerge?
Answer: Every 13 or 17 years
Their timing is remarkably precise.
Q3: Why might periodical cicadas use prime-number cycles?
Answer: To avoid syncing with predator cycles
It is a leading hypothesis.
Q4: When did the Brood X cicadas last emerge?
Answer: 2021
It is a 17-year brood.
Q5: How loud can cicada choruses be?
Answer: Over 90 decibels
Like a lawn mower.
Q6: How do male cicadas make their sound?
Answer: Buckling drum-like tymbals
Their hollow bodies amplify it.
Q7: What are the empty shells left on trees?
Answer: Molted nymph skins
Adults split out of them.
Q8: Do cicadas bite or sting people?
Answer: No
They are harmless to humans.
Q9: Which ancient culture kept cicadas for their song?
Answer: Ancient Greece
Poets praised their singing.
Q10: Which animals feast on cicada emergences?
Answer: Birds and many other animals
So many emerge that predators get full.

Cicadas Quiz – The Long Wait Underground

Cicadas are insects famous for their loud summer songs. There are over 3,000 species worldwide. Most spend years underground as nymphs, feeding on sap from tree roots, before climbing up to molt into winged adults.

Periodical cicadas in North America emerge in huge numbers every 13 or 17 years. By appearing all at once, they overwhelm predators, so many survive to breed. Brood X, one of the largest broods, last emerged in 2021.

Male cicadas sing with drum-like organs called tymbals, producing some of the loudest insect sounds. Cicadas are harmless to people, and their emergences provide a feast for birds, squirrels and fish. In some cultures they symbolize rebirth.

What This Quiz Teaches

Nature fans and curious readers will enjoy these questions.

Where nymphs live
Why some emerge every 17 years
How cicadas make sound
What their shells are
Why emergences overwhelm predators

Did You Know?

Annual cicadas appear every summer.
Cicadas sweat to keep cool.
Some fungi infect cicadas.
Cicadas have five eyes.
Brood XIII and XIX emerged together in 2024.