In some areas, cicadas may be no-shows

Residents of the East Coast of the United States have been inundated with reports about the emergence of the Brood X cicadas – a 17-year cycle that will bring the insects out of the ground and into the air across a broad swath of the region. But what about the places where the cicadas won’t emerge?

“Development, pesticide use and the presence of invasive species are destroying historic populations of Brood X cicadas,” the New York Times reports, “while climate change spurs bugs from different broods to come up years early, experts say. The disruption of these cycles means some places that were expecting cicadas this year will miss out, while others may be surprised by an unscheduled emergence.”

Researchers in particular are looking at Long Island, which had been New York’s last Brood X holdout. But the population has been declining in recent decades, and the last emergence in 2004 resulted in few cicadas. Meanwhile, Brood XIV cicadas may make an appearance four years early.

Read more from the New York Times.