The Pilgrims’ Promise: The 2025 Emergence of the Periodical Cicada Brood XIV

It started in May of 1634 at Plymouth Colony, when “there was such a quantity of a great sort of flies like for bigness to wasps or bumblebees, which came out of holes in the ground and replenished all the wood…and soon made such a constant yelling noise…as ready to deaf the hearers.” The Pilgrims had never seen anything like this before, and they did not realize that, thanks to their unique life cycle, these insects promised to return every 17 years. The Pilgrims’ Promise: The 2025 Emergence of Periodical Cicada Brood XIV discusses the natural history, evolution, behavior, and distribution of periodical cicadas and provides a detailed survey of the history of Brood XIV from 1634 to 2025. It is a perfect starting point from which to experience the same dramatic natural event that shocked the Pilgrims nearly four centuries ago.Gene Kritsky, Ph.D., is Professor Emeritus of Biology at Mount St. Joseph University in Cincinnati, Ohio. He is the author of several books, including The Quest for the Perfect Hive and The Tears of Re: Beekeeping in Ancient Egypt (both published by Oxford University Press) and Periodical Cicadas: The Brood X Edition and The Tale of Two Broods: the 2024 Emergence Periodical Cicada Broods XIII and XIX (both published by the Ohio Biological Survey). Kritsky is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Entomological Society of America, and he has researched periodical cicadas for 50 years. Read more