The song that fills the air a few days after cicadas emerge is that of males producing their mating calls. The life of the emerged male cicada consists primarily of singing, flying and mating. Short as the life of the aboveground cicada might be, it's full of sex. Males and females mate continuously, with many partners. The female's ovipositor -- a sharp egg-laying tube off her back end -- allows her to create slits in branches in which she then deposits her roughly 500 eggs. She then falls off the branch and dies. Males might live a few days longer.