By Dan Klepal
Enquirer staff writer

Brood X cicadas are back and re-emerging all around Greater Cincinnati. And this time they're coming out in far greater - if less noisy - numbers.

CICADAS

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The new emergence is of cicada babies, or nymphs, which hatch in trees, drop silently and bury themselves underground, where they feed on liquid in roots. The eggs began hatching in trees all over the region last month and will continue to do so through next month.

There are an estimated 800 billion of the sesame seed-sized cicadas trying to go underground before ants or spiders eat them.

"We're in the midst of a second Brood X emergence, but this time in reverse," said Gene Kritsky, cicada researcher and biology professor at the College of Mount St. Joseph.

Kritsky said Greater Cincinnati is, in effect, a periodical cicada laboratory, with one of the largest emergences in the country at between 5 and 7 billion this year. Cicadas also emerged in Mid-Atlantic and other Midwestern states. Among the things learned from this year's emergence:

• Cicadas migrated up to a quarter-mile into new housing developments, built since Brood X's last emergence in 1987.

• Brood X is moving east, with the help of a few million bugs from their cousins from Brood XIV, which last emerged in 1991. Brood XIV is also a 17-year periodical cicada that isn't supposed to emerge until 2008. But Kritsky confirmed some came out four years early. He thinks the early emergence of a small percentage helps the bugs insure survival by joining the larger group of Brood X, and spread to new regions.

• Anderson Township, Hyde Park, Clifton, Delhi Township and Fort Washington experienced some of the heaviest numbers of cicadas, with well over 300 cicadas emerging per square yard.

• Cicadas not only urinate, but they can aim their stream to knock competing males off tree branches.

Kritsky is mapping the cicada emergence in Ohio and Indiana. He got more than 2,500 e-mails reporting emergences. He said community involvement was crucial for him to draw an accurate map.

"Cicada secrets that were only talked about by a handful of scientists are now of general interest," Kritsky said. "It's like I had 1.8 million lab assistants."

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E-mail dklepal@enquirer.com