By Dan Klepal
The Cincinnati Enquirer

About 20 percent of Greater Cincinnatians likely will wake up to cicadas this morning - maybe hundreds, maybe just a handful. But don't expect to hear the red-eyed bugs singing their deafening love songs just yet.

SPECIAL SECTION

• Cicada watch 2004

Hundreds of Brood X cicadas emerged from spots in Delhi Township, Anderson Township and Upper Price Hill Tuesday night, said Gene Kritsky, a cicada researcher and biology professor at College of Mount St. Joseph.

But Kritsky said the full emergence of the 17-year periodical insect hasn't really started. Billions of cicadas are expected to pop up locally between now and June 30.

"There aren't any hard-and-fast rules on when the emergence officially begins, but generally, it's when you walk outside and see cicadas everywhere. It's like (Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart's) definition of pornography: You know it when you see it."

After spending 17 years underground, where they live off liquid in roots, cicadas emerge in a swarm, fly into trees and begin a love fest that will leave them dead by the end of June. They lay eggs in tiny slits of tree branches.

Kritsky said the full-blown emergence will occur after a soaking rain loosens the ground. The forecast calls for a possibility of storms through the weekend.

E-mail dklepal@enquirer.com