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Billions of cicadas set to emerge in rare event not seen since 1803

Scientists are expecting hundreds of billions of cicadas to pop up across parts of the United States this spring.

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Reuters

<p>Scientists are expecting hundreds of billions of cicadas to pop up across parts of the United States this spring.</p><p>For the first time since 1803, when Thomas Jefferson was president and the U.S. was purchasing Louisiana from France, two broods of the loud bugs will be emerging and overlapping.</p><p>Experts say a Northern Illinois-based brood of cicadas, known as Brood XIII, that appears every 17 years will cross paths with a southeastern U.S.-based brood that appears every 13 years, known as Brood XIX.</p><p>Illinois is the only place where both broods are expected to be visible.</p><p>&quot;Being able to see something that no living person has ever been able to see, and somebody only in about 6 or 7 generations from now will be able to see again, I think it&#x27;s just really, really, really exciting,&quot; said Jim Louderman, entomologist and collection assistant at the Field Museum in Chicago.</p><p>Louderman and his colleagues believe the borders of the two broods will meet in central Illinois, in and around the Midwestern state&#x27;s capital city, Springfield.</p><p>&quot;These really rare events are opportunities for those cicadas to be out and maybe for the species to meet each other, for crossings between species to occur, for evolution to happen,&quot; said Bruno de Medeiros, entomologist and insect curator at the Field Museum of Chicago.</p><div><em>(Produced by Eric Cox)</em></div><div><br/></div>

<p>Scientists are expecting hundreds of billions of cicadas to pop up across parts of the United States this spring.</p>