Are Cicadas really Locusts?
NO! Cicadas are not locusts. Locusts are actually winged grasshoppers that destroy crops and other vegitation and some times migrate in huge swarms.
Cicadas are often mis-identified as locusts. This harkens back to early settler days when America was being colonized. The first emergence of Periodical Cicadas was noted by early European settlers who compared them to the plagues of locusts suffered upon Egypt during biblical times. Unfortunately, the methaphor stuck and Cicadas have been mis-identified as locusts since then.
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