If locust and cicadas are not the same insects do they both appear every 17 years?

Question

Francine

Answer 1

They ARE the same thing!!

Answer 2

Cicadas are often also called locusts. The
name locust, however, as in the bible reference
to someone eating locusts and honey, properly
refers to the short-antennaed grasshoppers.

Male cicadas are the insects that sing loudly
during the day in summer. There are dozens of
kinds of cicadas, and only 3 very similar ones
emerge every 17 years in the northern half of
the U.S. Further to the south the same three
emerge every 13 years. Other kinds require
less time to become adult. The shortest time
I have heard of is 4 years. There are different
broods of each species, so many of the more
rapidly developing ones are present as adults
every year. The adult cicadas do note bite, nor
do they feed in the adult stage. The laying of
eggs by the females, however, damages twigs
of trees. They have a saw-like egg-laying
apparatus, and cut slits in tree twigs, in which
they lay the eggs. When there is a large
emergence of the 13 or 17 year kinds, killing
of terminal twigs of trees by the egg laying is very conspicuous.

Answer 3

Once again we have an ignorant person who can't help taking a jab at atheists. What about us having to tolerate religious nonsense every day? Be glad that you don't live in a theocracy. Inquisitions and witch hunts don't take long to get started, but they're hard to stop, and anyone can be accused without any grounds at all. People who believe things without evidence can be convinced of anything. Cicadas do live underground for several years before they emerge, but there are still some cicadas every year. It's like going to the bank every year to buy a bond that matures in five years. You have to wait five years for the first one to mature, but one matures each year after that. The news report is about a particularly heavy year. If all of the cicadas had a 17-year life cycle, they would effectively be divided into 17 separate populations, one for each year of the cycle. Over a long enough time, they might diverge into 17 different species, since only the members of a given year's adult population interbreed. Given that there are more than 1500 species of cicadas, this has probably already happened many times. The long, prime number life spans of cicadas help them avoid predators that have shorter life cycles. For example, a variety of cicadas with a 17-year life cycle would only encounter predators with 3, 4, and 5-year life cycles every 51, 68, and 85 years respectively. Over time, those with longer life cycles that were a prime number of years did better than those shorter or non-prime life cycles, and became more numerous, an example of natural selection at work.

Answer 4

Locusts are not the same as cicadas. Locusts are actually grasshoppers. When environmental conditions are just right (i.e., bad), the grasshoppers become migratory swarms of voracious plant eaters, destroying everything in their path. Normally, they do not band together, only when conditions get bad - there is no set timing. Cicadas are in a completely different order (with aphids). Thyre are 17 year and 13 year cicadas. They live underground as larvae for that long, and only come out as adults every 13 or 17 years.

Answer 5

Locust are actually grasshoppers. Cicadas are the ones that come out every 17 years.

Answer 6

They're completely different insects. Locust is a term used for a phase in the life of certain types of grasshoppers. When certain conditions occur the grasshoppers change color and start to swarm. But they don't always do this every year. Sometimes it's many years between swarming phases.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Locust

Answer 7

its not that they APPEAR after 17 years it takes 17 years for the cicada larvae to mature then burrow out of the ground, locusts, i think perfer farmland or countryside.......hope i helped

Answer 8

The only things they have in common are that they are insects and they occur in swarms of billions.
Locusts are grasshoppers.
Cicadas are, well, cicadas.
Cicadas are really, really loud.
Locusts are too busy eating to make much noise.

Answer 9

pretty much same bug, but different parts of the world

cicada: n and s america
locust: africa, aisia, europe

Answer 10

idk, but watch out they are comming tomorrow! eww..