Cicada Cam Lets You Watch Brood II Live

Missing this year's much-hyped emergence of the East Coast's Brood II cicadas? You can watch the 17-year-old insects live thanks to the Science Channel's cicada cam.

The six-legged creatures crawl all over a miniature model of Washington's Capitol building in a tiny set befitting Brood II's horror-movie name.

If the footage makes your skin crawl and you're wondering what all the fuss is about, know that Brood II is one of the distinct cicada populations that only comes out of the ground to molt and mate every 17 years; you won't be seeing this type again until 2030. Known as periodical cicadas, they belong to the genus Magicicada, and they can be found only in the eastern half of North America. Brood II's range extends from Georgia to Connecticut and it began its emergence earlier this month.

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Megan has been writing for Live Science and Space.com since 2012. Her interests range from archaeology to space exploration, and she has a bachelor's degree in English and art history from New York University. Megan spent two years as a reporter on the national desk at NewsCore. She has watched dinosaur auctions, witnessed rocket launches, licked ancient pottery sherds in Cyprus and flown in zero gravity. Follow her on Twitter and Google+.