Strange cicada behavior: Strongest urinators, zombie fungus and more as millions arrive

LITTLE ROCK (KATV) — Millions of cicadas are expected to emerge across 15 U.S. states in what experts are calling a "rare event."

The event is so rare that one like it has not happened since Thomas Jefferson was president back in 1803. Their emergence is predicted to come sometime around May.

Cicadas are a type of insect that live in the ground and eventually emerge from their shells and make their way to areas with a lot of trees to eat the sap.

The insects are found all over the country every year, but Dr. Jon Zawislak, an extension entomologist with the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture Cooperative Extension Service, said this year is different.

Zawislak said more cicadas than usual will appear because Brood XIX is expected to emerge, and this only happens every 13 years. He added that they all come out of the ground in synchronized fashion after they finish completing their life cycle.

They are all synchronized to come out at once so they can kind of overwhelm the predators in their environment," said Zawislak.

One distinctive characteristic about a cicada is the buzzing sound they make, which Zawislak said was their mating call.

They have one thing on their mind when they come out: they are all looking for love," said Zawislak. "It is the male cicadas that are making that song. We call it a chorus. They have an organ on their body called a tymbal and when it vibrates back and forth it makes that distinctive noise. When the females hear that, and they like what they hear, they make kind of a clicking noise that lets the males know that they are available. They do their thing and ensure that there are going to be more cicadas next time.”

Cicadas are not toxic to animals or humans. In fact, Zawislak said cicadas play an important role in the ecosystem when it comes to feeding other animals.

“They are actually a very important source of food," said Zawislak. "They are a big link between plants and higher animals ... Every bird or animal that could possibly eat a cicada has already eaten their fill so that means the ones that are left are free to do their thing and reproduce.”

Cicadas aren't just plentiful, they're also downright strange. The Associated Press spoke to experts who shed more light on the insects' weird habits.

They are the strongest urinators in the animal kingdom with flows that are two to three times stronger and faster than elephants and humans.They have a muscle that pushes the waste through a tiny hole like a jet,Georgia Tech biophysics professor Saad Bhamla said.

They have pumps in their heads that pull moisture from the roots of trees, allowing them to feed for more than a decade underground.

In what is perhaps the most bizarre aspect of this story, cicadas are also being ravaged by a sexually transmitted disease that turns them into zombies. A fungus causes their private parts to fall off,University of Connecticut entomologist John Cooley told the AP.

Cooley said this is "stranger than science fiction" and called it a "sexually transmitted zombie disease.”

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Editor's note: The Associated Press contributed to this report.