In Staten Island, as in other parts of the US east coast, cicadas have emerged from the ground and embarked on their quest to mate.
The Sunnyside neighbourhood of Staten Island has proved to be a particularly popular stomping ground for the inch-long insects. Thousands upon thousands of cicadas have dug themselves out of the soil here, shed their exoskeletons and set about trying to find a suitor.
After 17 years beneath ground anyone would be keen to get the mating underway as quickly as possible. Unfortunately for residents of Sunnyside, that means cicadas flying about all over the place and making a noise that can reach up to 120db as the males and females seek each other out.
For the next few weeks the distinctive siren sound that male cicadas produce – they make the noise by contracting muscles in their abdomens – will be hard to avoid in Staten Island. As will the cicadas' exoskeletons, which ring trees and telegraph poles.
In May I filmed cicadas as they began to emerge from the ground. This time they were fully formed, mobile and, in some cases, ahem, at it.
