Cicada Mania

Some University of Colorado Cicada pages: Large list of Cicada Genus and species and Cicada Fossils.

A new location for the Brisbane Bugs site.

Classy cicada jewelry.

Looking for cicada anatomy links? Curious about ovipositors, the clypeus or tymbals?

The Invertebrate Anatomy OnLine Tibicen Cicada page is simply the best. You’ll find many awesome illustrations and definitions of the various cicada parts.

Once you learn the parts go to our gallery and try to identify the parts on real cicada photos.

Also, the UMMZ Periodical Cicada Page has pictures of male and female cicadas, and directions as to how to tell the difference.

If stragglers do arrive, it could be any time between the first week of May and the first week of June. I believe the first sighting last year happened between May 1st and May 11th.

From a Courier-Journal article titled Invasion of the straggers! by Mark Coomes:

Alas, some Brood X cicadas slept through the coming-out party and next month will launch another invasion of the body hatchers. But you might not even notice.

From a Southern Voice article titled Eatin’ of the Green by George Oliver:

If you think crabs and lobsters are delicious, and you’re not turned off by the way they look, then you have no right to gasp at a sautéed cicada on your plate.

Do you think that the first person in beachside cooking history looked at a crab scurrying across a sand bar and said “yum”? No, he probably said, “ohmagod, what a hideous beast, with way too many legs and dirty, unfashionable armor.”

If he was gay, he might have also mused on its possible use as a campy cave latrine decoration. If he then decided it might be good to eat, he was either very adventurous or very hungry.

Now in the interest of full disclosure, I haven’t actually eaten a cicada yet, so I had to go online to see what cooking techniques are recommended. I suspected that, like with crabs and lobsters, a mature creature might be too hard, but how do you crack a cicada, and is there much to eat inside?

From An article in the Kentcky Post:

Small pockets of the bugs will emerge this summer a year behind schedule, according to cicada expert Gene Kritsky, a biology professor at the College of Mount St. Joseph in Delhi Township, Ohio.

“We call them off-cycle cicada stragglers,” he said. “They’re like guys that got their Palm Pilots wrong.”

New: Roy Troutman’s Red Eyed Magicicada (17-year)	Roy Troutman’s Blue Eyed Magicicada (17-year)
Roy Troutman’s Tibicen Cicada	Classic Cicada Mania
Cicada Mania 2	Cicada Mania Oldschool	Bug of Mystery

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1. Awesome Cicada photos from New Zealand: Steve Reekie is a great
   nature photographer. Take a look at some of his cicada photos:
   Gone
   But Not Forgotten, Chorus
   Cicada, Cicada
   Nymph, and Little Grass Cicada.
2. Cicada Art: Look at this cool
   electric cicada art titled Electri[c]icada by drp.
   Thanks to Flying Fur (a blog about bats) for the link.
3. Laura has set up a web page for her cicada sounds CD. It includes MP3 samples.
4. Got Stragglers? Even though the big emergence happened last year, a few cicadas from the same brood
   might emerge this year as well. This phenomenon is calling Straggling. And you thought you
   were safe for the next 17 years? More info about Straggling can be found on the
   The University of Michigan Museum of Zoology Insect Division Periodical Cicada Page.