The cicadas are the loudest of all the insects.  Only the males make the erratic, annoying sound (song) to attract the females to mate with.  And each species has its own individual song!

Cicadas do not make this annoying sound by rubbing their wings or legs, (like the other insects, such as crickets,) as is believed by many people; they make these sounds by contacting and relaxing their “noise making” organs called ‘timbals’/’tymbals’ on the sides of their abdominal base.

The most annoying thing is that the cicada himself is not bothered by that sound because he can conveniently switch off (disable) his hearing mechanism when making that sound!

Though the entire life cycle – from egg to adult stage – takes 2 to 5 years in most species, and 13 and 17 in some American species, spending most of their time underground, the adult cicadas live for only 2 to 4 weeks.

The adult male dies soon after mating, and the female dies soon after laying eggs!

People have been eating cicadas for hundreds of years.  In China they are a delicacy (= a special food item); and people in Malaysia, Myanmar, Latin America and the Congo relish cicadas.