The 17-year cicadas emerging dramatically by the billions in 15 U.S. states from Georgia to New York and west to Illinois are making quite a racket—a uniquely North American phenomenon—but thousands of other cicada species on the planet also spend most of their lives underground, many of them emerging below the radar of human perception. Because most cicada species don’t emerge simultaneously like species in the genus Magicicada—the periodical cicadas—little is known about their natural history. Driven by unusual attention to detail and curiosity, Annette Aiello, staff entomologist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) in Panama, joined a very select group of people who have successfully reared cicadas a feat that may reveal their host plants, their reproductive timing and other mysterious facets of their nature—and in this case, may result in the identification of a new species.
Click here for original story, The path toward discovering a new species of Cicada
Source: Phys.org