Cicadas are a curious insect and their exoskeletons were often found near cherry and apple trees in my childhood backyard. We’re sharing this for those who are curious, too.
USDA-ARS researchers are trying to answer a long-standing question about cicadas. Beyond understanding their every-so-often emergence and sometimes deafening waves of escalating high-pitched chirps, the scientists seek to understand their feeding behaviors hoping to offset damage done to orchards from their eggs.
Scientists found mainly woody plant and apple tree DNA, in adult cicada guts and found that 54 percent of those cicadas contained DNA from multiple plant species.
Source: USDA, October 18, 2023. Link.
Researchers couldn’t find any plant DNA in the guts of teneral adults, so we can be reasonably sure that the DNA found in mature adult Magicicada was eaten during the adult stage, since no DNA carries over from the nymph stage.”