Cicadas are known for their characteristic shrill buzz, which
is actually the male??™s mating song, one of the loudest known insect noises.
Cicadas emerge from the ground in the spring or summer, molt, then shed their skin
in the form of a shell. They stay near trees and plants, where they live for four to six
weeks with the sole purpose of mating. The adult insects then die, and their young
hatch and burrow into the ground. They attach to tree roots and feed off the sap for
4 to 17 years, after which time they emerge and continue the mating cycle. Cicadas
have one of the longest life spans of any insect; the most common species is the periodical
cicada, which lives underground for 13 to 17 years.
The cover image is an original 19th-century engraving from Cuvier??™s Animals. The
cover font is Adobe ITC Garamond. The text font is Linotype Birka; the heading font
is Adobe Myriad Condensed; and the code font is LucasFont??™s TheSans Mono
Condensed.
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