A large insect with clear wings that produces a loud buzzing or clicking sound, especially the periodical cicada that emerges every 13 or 17 years.
From Latin 'cicada', which may derive from an imitative origin related to the insect's sound. The word entered English in the 16th century and became well-known through observations of massive emergences.
Cicadas are synchronized via an evolutionary strategy called 'predator satiation'—by all emerging at once every 13 or 17 years, they overwhelm predators with sheer numbers so most survive, and those prime numbers may have evolved to avoid predator cycles. It's one of nature's strangest countdowns.
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