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With all the news about cicadas and how Brood X is hatched in 2021, many of you probably have black, buzzing swarms of beetles in your brains! If you are worried that cicadas will look like the infestation of the locust swarms you may have seen in the movies, destroying crops and causing hunger, don’t worry! While they do have some similarities, and the names have been misused interchangeably almost since cicadas were first discovered in North America, cicadas and locusts are not the same thing!
if you look at Cicadas versus Locusts: what’s the difference? In simple terms, the cicada is more like aphids, while the locust is a species of short-legged grasshopper. If you’re looking for more details, don’t worry! We’re going to list many of the similarities and differences below, including what is the basic life cycle of each insect and what sound each one makes.
The biggest difference between cicadas and locusts is probably that although they appear in very large numbers when they hatch, cicadas do not swarm like locusts. Cicadas also do not destroy or consume crops in the same way as locusts. Locusts and cicadas are herbivores, but cicadas are much less destructive when they feed. In fact, most of the damage that cicadas do to plants comes from their laying, not their eating habits. The locusts are longer and thinner than cicadas, with long hind legs common to all grasshoppers. Cicadas have very small legs. Periodic cicadas, which emerge from the ground only every 13-17 years, are found only in North America, where swarming locusts have not been detected since the locust became extinct in the Rocky Mountains in 1902, and the locust in the High Plains almost so. after the plague in 1930
There are some similarities between the two insects. Both cicadas and locusts have wings, although locusts usually fly much greater distances. Both of these creatures eat plants and lay eggs. They are both very loud and usually appear in large groups. Neither cicadas nor locusts are aggressive towards people, although this may be so if a large group of them is flying and you get in their way!
Let’s break down a few more of their differences and similarities in the following list.
Order
Cicada
Cicadas are a species of Hemiptera or “real insects”. Some people think they are related to crickets, but in reality they are not. Although much larger, cicadas are aphid-like, which also belong to the order Hemiptera.
Locust
The locust belongs to the Orthoptera order. This order is divided into two suborders: locusts and grasshoppers on one side and crickets on the other.
A family
Cicada
Cicadas belong to the Cicadidae family, which covers any beetle that makes a sound, has bulging eyes, two membranous pairs of wings, and compound and simple eyes.
Locust
Locusts – Acrididae. This family designation refers to any short-legged grasshopper that migrates and swarms in large numbers.
The size
Cicada
Cicadas are usually about two inches long and half an inch wide.
Locust
Locusts can grow up to four inches in length, but some are less than half an inch!
Diet
Cicada
Cicadas drink the liquid from the inside of the stems, roots and branches of plants.
Locust
Locusts eat leaves and any softer parts of plants, which is why they are so damaging to crops when they are swarming with epidemics. They leave behind very little.
Life span
Cicada
The life cycle of a cicada is very interesting. They lay eggs on plants. When the eggs hatch, they become nymphs who fall down to burrow into the ground, where they live most of their lives. Being underground, a cicada nymph can live up to 17 years! Once they emerge as brood X in 2021, they shed their outer shells and, laying more eggs, die about six weeks after hatching.
Locust
Locusts have a much more mundane life cycle. They lay their eggs on the ground. After hatching, locusts usually live from three to five months, but during this time they can lay up to 1000 eggs!
Collective name
Cicada
A group of cicadas is known as a brood. In the United States, these broods have been given letter names according to their life cycle and hatching years, such as Brood X, which will hatch in 2021.
Locust
A large swarm of locusts is called a plague.
Features
Cicada
Periodic cicadas are most often black with bright red eyes, while annual species have a very beautiful blue-green and black striped pattern. They are similar in size to the middle finger of a person. Their transparent yellow-orange wings extend beyond the abdomen, protecting them from water and bacteria. Men use a pair of organs known as timbals to produce a very loud buzzing vibration that resonates through their mostly hollow bodies. The sound of cicadas can be as high as 100 decibels!
Locust
Locusts are very similar in appearance to grasshoppers. They tend to turn green before they enter the swarming phase, after which their heads shrink and they turn brown and black or black with orange spots. They have two long, pointed antennae at the crown and very long hind legs that remain bent in half at rest. They are much quieter insects that make sounds, but rub their two parts of their body against each other, creating a buzzing or sometimes clicking sound.
Whatever their differences, both cicadas and locusts are adorable creatures!
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