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Cicada Life Cycle Study

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Cicada Life Cycle Study

A quiet native planting area beside an airport terminal has become a cicada-watching spot. Read the field notes, then solve the questions using evidence from them. Remember: cicadas do not have a pupal stage.

Read the field notes

Tevita and Hana observe cicadas near the airport's native trees. A female cicada lays eggs in small cuts in a twig. When the eggs hatch, tiny nymphs fall to the ground and burrow into the soil. Underground, a nymph uses its mouthparts to drink water and nutrients from a tree root. It may live there for several years, growing and shedding its outer skin as it gets bigger. When ready, it climbs out of the soil and up a tree trunk or another upright surface. Its outer skin splits, and an adult cicada emerges. The new adult's wings expand and harden. Adults live above ground, where males call to attract mates. Birds and other animals may eat cicadas. Cicada nymphs and adults are part of a food web, and their underground movement can help loosen soil. The length of the underground stage varies between cicada species.

Follow the life cycle

1. Egg: laid in a twig

2. Nymph: lives underground and feeds from roots

3. Emergence: climbs up and sheds its outer skin

4. Adult: lives above ground and can reproduce

1.Put these events in the correct order by writing 1–4 beside each: adult lays eggs; nymph lives underground; adult emerges from its old skin; egg hatches.

2.Which statement best describes a cicada's life cycle?

It has egg, larva, pupa and adult stages.
It has egg, nymph and adult stages; the nymph grows without a pupal stage.
It hatches as an adult and later becomes a nymph.
It changes from a seed into an adult.

3.Where does a cicada nymph live, and what does it feed on there? Use the field notes.

4.A cicada nymph becomes a pupa before turning into an adult. Write true or false, then correct the statement if it is false.

TrueFalse

5.When a nymph is ready to emerge, it climbs up a . Its outer skin , and the adult comes out.

6.A young cicada spends years underground, while an adult lives above ground. Give one reason the underground nymph stage is important to the cicada's life cycle.

7.Name one animal that may eat cicadas, and explain how cicadas can provide food for it.

8.Suppose cicadas disappeared from the airport's native planting area. Describe one possible change to the local food web or soil, using a detail from the field notes.

9.Use the cycle diagram to show the four events in order. Add arrows and label where each event happens: twig, soil, or above ground. The adult stage should lead back to egg-laying.

10.Give one difference between a cicada nymph and an adult. Include where each lives or what each does.