Cicada Coloring Pages

Free Cicada coloring pages: 23 printable PDF designs featuring these loud, long-lived insects in portrait, ready-to-print, and nature-scene styles. Each page can be downloaded as a PDF to print or colored online in the browser.

Cicadas are true bugs belonging to the insect order Hemiptera, recognized by their large, transparent wings and stocky bodies that typically appear in shades of green, brown, or black. Most of a cicada’s life is spent unseen: after hatching, the young cicada, called a nymph, burrows underground and spends years feeding on fluid from plant roots, molting several times as it slowly grows. Some species, called annual cicadas, complete this underground stage in just a few years, while periodical cicadas famously stay buried for exactly 13 or 17 years before emerging together by the billions in a single, synchronized event. Once ready, nymphs dig their way to the surface, climb onto a tree or plant, and split open their exoskeleton one last time to reveal a fully formed, winged adult, leaving behind the hollow, tan-colored shell many people find clinging to tree bark in summer. Adult cicadas live for only a few weeks, just long enough to mate and lay eggs. Still, they make those weeks memorably loud: male cicadas use drum-like organs called tymbals on the sides of their abdomen to produce a buzzing call that can reach around 100 decibels, making cicadas some of the loudest insects on Earth.

This collection groups its 23 designs into classic portraits, ready-to-print pages, cute, stylized, and mandala designs, and cicadas in nature, giving colorists several ways to bring these remarkable insects to life.

What Is Inside This Collection

The 23 Cicada pages are split into four natural groups based on style and setting.

Classic Portraits

This group covers straightforward, realistic cicada poses that keep the wide, transparent wings and stocky body as the clear focal point. A muted green or brown base for the body pairs well with a lighter, semi-transparent shade for the delicate wing veins.

Ready-to-Print Pages

This is the largest single-purpose group, covering the simplified, larger-outline designs built for quick printing sessions. Bigger wing and body shapes and fewer fine details make this group especially suited to younger colorists.

Cute, Stylized, and Mandala Designs

This set includes softer, more playful cartoon interpretations alongside two intricate mandala-style pages that turn the cicada’s wing patterns into a more meditative, symmetrical design. These pages give colorists a choice between a quick, friendly look and a slower, more detailed coloring experience.

Cicadas in Nature

This group places cicadas in their real habitat, on tree branches, among leaves, and within a forest setting, tying directly into where cicadas actually spend their brief adult lives. These pages give colorists room to add bark texture and greenery around the insect itself.

What Cicada Coloring Pages Do

A striking lesson in patience. Cicadas may spend more than a decade underground as nymphs before ever seeing daylight, only to live as adults for a few short weeks. Coloring a cicada page gives a parent or teacher a natural opening to talk about this dramatic contrast, an extraordinarily long wait followed by a short, intense burst of activity, in a way children find genuinely surprising.

Practicing detail on real transparent wing veins. The American Academy of Pediatrics identifies fine motor skill development as a core benefit of structured coloring for children ages 2 through 7, and a cicada’s networked, branching wing veins give children practice with fine, connected line work distinct from the solid color blocks most animal pages call for.

Connecting a coloring page to a real seasonal event. Periodical cicadas emerge in enormous, synchronized groups called broods, an event so large and loud that it makes local news in the regions where it happens. Coloring a cicada page offers a natural way to introduce this real, predictable natural phenomenon well before or after it actually occurs nearby.

A steady, immersive calm. A 2005 study in the Art Therapy Journal documented measurable reductions in anxiety following structured coloring sessions. The intricate wing patterns on the mandala-style cicada pages in particular offer a slow, repetitive coloring rhythm well suited to that calming, focused benefit.

How to Color Cicada Pages Well

• Body: Base the stocky body in a muted Green, Brown, or Black, since real cicadas commonly appear in these earthy tones.
• Wings: Color the large wings a very pale, almost transparent shade, using a light gray or faint yellow so the body color can still be imagined showing through underneath.
• Wing veins: Add thin, darker lines branching across the wings to represent the real networked vein pattern that gives cicada wings their structure.
• Eyes: Many real cicadas have strikingly red or amber eyes, so consider using a bright red or orange for the eyes to capture this distinctive, easy-to-recognize feature.
• Legs: Shade the legs a slightly darker tone than the body, since cicada legs are built for gripping tree bark and tend to appear sturdy rather than delicate.
• Nature-scene pages: On the tree and forest pages, use warm brown tones for the bark and a range of greens for leaves, helping the cicada blend naturally into its real outdoor habitat.

5 Creative Craft Ideas With Cicada Coloring Pages

1. Underground-to-treetop timeline

Pair a colored cicada page with a simple drawn timeline showing years underground as a nymph, followed by a few short weeks as a flying adult, to illustrate its unusual life cycle.

2. Cicada shell craft

If a real, empty cicada shell can be found outdoors, place it next to a colored cicada page to compare the finished adult coloring to the pale, hollow shell it left behind.

3. Loudest insect sound match

Pair a colored cicada page with a simple fact card noting its buzzing call can reach about 100 decibels, and compare that volume to a familiar everyday sound like a lawn mower.

4. Mandala pattern practice

Use one of the mandala-style cicada pages to practice symmetrical shading techniques, working outward evenly from the center.

5. Nature journal bookmark

Cut out a colored classic portrait page, glue it to cardstock, and trim close to the outline for a durable bookmark.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are Cicada coloring pages?

Cicada coloring pages are free printable and online designs featuring these large, loud insects in different poses and styles, including classic portraits, ready-to-print pages, cute and mandala designs, and nature scenes. This collection includes 23 designs that can be downloaded as PDFs or colored directly in the browser.

How long do cicadas live?

It depends on the species. Annual cicadas typically spend two to five years underground as nymphs before emerging, while periodical cicadas spend exactly 13 or 17 years underground. Once they emerge as winged adults, cicadas of any kind live for only a few weeks.

Why are cicadas so loud?

Male cicadas produce their buzzing call using drum-like organs called tymbals located on the sides of their abdomen. This call can reach around 100 decibels, making cicadas among the loudest insects in the world.

What do cicadas eat?

Cicada nymphs feed on fluid sucked from plant and tree roots while living underground. Adult cicadas generally do not feed much, if at all, during their brief few weeks above ground.

What is a periodical cicada brood?

A brood is a group of periodical cicadas that all emerge from the ground together in the same year, after spending exactly 13 or 17 years underground as nymphs. These emergences can involve billions of cicadas appearing within just a few weeks in a single region.

Are cicadas harmful to people or pets?

No, cicadas are largely harmless to humans and pets. They do not bite or sting to defend themselves, though their exoskeletons can occasionally upset a pet’s stomach if eaten in large quantities.

Are Cicada coloring pages suitable for young children?

Yes. The simplified, ready-to-print pages and cute, stylized designs work well for toddlers and young children. In contrast, the mandala designs and detailed nature scenes give older kids and insect enthusiasts more intricate options to color as well.

How many Cicada coloring pages are available to download?

This collection includes 23 designs, covering classic portraits, ready-to-print pages, cute and mandala designs, and nature scenes. Every page can be downloaded as a free PDF or colored online.

Start Coloring

Download any page by clicking the design. No account, email, or payment is required. Pages print directly from the browser at full resolution or open in the online coloring tool for screen use. Share finished pages on Facebook or Pinterest with the share buttons at the top of each design page.