Cicada Mania

A few people have asked me if cicadas sing at night. The truth is, in most cases they do not. Most of the time when you hear an insect at night it is a cricket or katydid. However, there are a few cases when cicadas will sing at night:

1. In the presence of artificial light sources: full moon, streetlights, flood lights. I turned on a flood light tonight to test this and it worked: a cicada started to sing.
2. When it’s extraordinarily hot.
3. If the cicada is disturbed or attacked.
4. If they’re overcrowded

Thanks to John Cooley for most of this information.

Visit the Sample Songs of Crickets and Katydids web site for sound clips of katydids and crickets.

Prof. Douglas Galvao of the State University of Campinas has written a paper titled Emergence of Prime Numbers as the Result of Evolutionary Strategy. He is hoping to get feedback from the scientific / cicada community.

We investigate by means of a simple theoretical model the emergence of prime numbers as life cycles, as those seen for some species of cicadas.

You can download a PDF version of the paper. Windows users will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view it, and Mac users can simply use Preview.

You can contract Prof. Douglas Galvao, as well:

Prof. D.S. Galvao
Head of Applied Physics Department
State University of Campinas
Campinas – Sao Paulo – BRAZIL

Another summer cicada article from Jennifer Pinner of the East Valley Tribune.

By now, you’ve probably heard them buzzing. The only bug on this planet that sweats lives in your back yard. They’re leaving brown, crunchy skins on your trees and singing into the evening. And odds are, cicadas and their mating calls are getting on your nerves.

From a recent article in the Macon Telegraph:

As a kid, I remember hunting around the back yard looking for cicada skeletons. They always gave me the creeps, seeing little ghost bugs perched on a pile of firewood or inside the depths of the garden shed. They were crunchy when you crushed them, and they were a sure sign that summer was here.

The article mentions this web site as well.

Columnist Gregory J. Rummo has written a delightful article about summertime cicadas and katydids. Read it in the Herald News or on Gregory’s Blog.

Here’s a sample quote:

Of the many sounds of nature I enjoy, one of my favorites is the cacophony of a backyard filled with katydids, those big fat green bugs that start singing around dusk sometime in late summer. Later this month or during the first week of August, depending on the weather, the first ones will begin their annual symphony from the treetops of the more wooded suburbs.