Periodical Cicadas

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Magicicada broods and distributions

Although nearly all of the periodical cicadas in a given region emerge in the same year, the cicadas in different regions are not synchronized and may emerge in different years. All periodical cicadas of the same life cycle type that emerge in a given year are known collectively as a single "brood" (or "year-class"). The resulting broods are designated by Roman numerals -- there are 12 broods of 17-year cicadas (with the remaining five year-classes apparently containing no cicadas), and 3 broods of 13-year cicadas (with ten empty year-classes). As a result, it is possible to find adult periodical cicadas in almost any year by traveling to the appropriate location. The table below is a guide to the approximate locations of periodical cicada broods. On a local scale, periodical cicadas can be patchily distributed.

Click here for a small-scale composite map of all brood ranges.

Click here for an alternate version of this table organized by year instead of brood.

Click on a brood number in the table below to see a larger-scale map of that brood's range.

17-year Broods	Year				General region
I	1978	1995	2012	2029	VA, WV
II	1979	1996	2013	2030	CT, MD, NC, NJ, NY, PA, VA
III	1980	1997	2014	2031	IA, IL, MO
IV	1981	1998	2015	2032	IA, KS, MO, NE, OK, TX
V	1982	1999	2016	2033	MD, OH, PA, VA, WV
VI	1983	2000	2017	2034	GA, NC, SC
VII	1967	1984	2001	2018	NY
VIII	1968	1985	2002	2019	OH, PA, WV
IX	1969	1986	2003	2020	NC, VA, WV
X	1970	1987	2004	2021	DE, GA, IL, IN, KY, MD, MI, NC, NJ, NY, OH, PA, TN, VA, WV
XI	1937	1954	Extinct		CT
XIII	1973	1990	2007	2024	IA, IL, IN, WI
XIV	1974	1991	2008	2025	KY, GA, IN, MA, MD, NC, NJ, NY, OH, PA, TN, VA, WV
13-year Broods
XIX	1972	1985	1998	2011	AL, AR, GA, IN, IL, KY, LA, MD, MO, MS, NC, OK, SC, TN, VA
XXI	1870	Extinct			FL
XXII	1988	2001	2014	2027	LA, MS
XXIII	1989	2002	2015	2028	AR, IL, IN, KY, LA, MO, MS, TN

Straggling and spurious broods

Sometimes periodical cicadas emerge "off-schedule" by one or more years. This phenomenon is often referred to by the general term "straggling," although straggling cicadas can emerge either later or earlier than expected. Straggling makes it difficult to construct accurate maps of periodical cicada brood distributions, and historical reports of emergences often contain little or no information about how many cicadas were seen. Straggling emergences in which one or two cicadas are present are common; larger unexpected emergences of thousands of individuals have been reported (e.g. Dybas 1969). Stragglers are almost certainly responsible for reports of "spurious broods" that are not generally recognized and that are not listed above.

These maps are intended to portray only approximate, present-day brood distributions. They are based on previously published maps (Marlatt 1923; Simon 1988) and unpublished data. However, they have not been field checked, and they do not portray historical reports of brood emergences. A project is currently underway to make new maps of periodical cicada broods. See the Magicicada mapping project homepage.

Literature:

Marlatt, C. 1923. The Periodical Cicada. United Stated Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Entomology Bulletin 71

Simon, C. 1988. Evolution of 13- and 17-year periodical cicadas. Bulletin of the Entomological Society of America 34:163-176.