I panicked the other day when Richard Fox’s excellent Tibicen anatomy page was down. I’m glad to say that it is back in service and that it is an incredible resource. Check it out if you want to learn more about a cicada’s parts.

Technorati Tags: Tibicen, cicada, cicada anatomy

This excellent photo of a Tibicen dorsata was taken in Oklahoma by Vic Fazio. More of Vic’s photos can be found here.

Technorati Tags: Tibicen dorsata, Oklahoma, cicada, Tibicen, Bush Cicada

Paul Krombholz has discovered some interesting variations in the Tibicen davisi cicadas. I’m quoting Paul’s email in its entirety below.

Here is the composite photo showing variation in Tibicen davisi. The
additional one I wanted to add turned out not to be as dark as I thought,
but it has a different pattern. All these came from the trees in my
backyard in central Mississippi this season. Colors on the dorsal (top)
side vary from dark brown to green. Perhaps the most typical is the “olive”
one in the middle. On the ventral (bottom) side, the black abdominal stripe
varies from very wide to non-existent. Variation in the size of the black
abdominal stripe is not related to the color on the dorsal side, as I have
seen absolutely no abdominal stripe on both a greenish one and a very dark
brown one.

Davis described a variety of T. davisi—T davisi var. hardeni—which has
little or no abdominal stripe. However, it also has darkening next to the
wing veins of the seven marginal cells as in T. superbus
(http://static.flickr.com/31/60751246_f60d00e2a9.jpg?v=0), While its upper
side is “less rusty” than the typical T. davisi, its underside is also
green. (Dr. Alan Sanborn, personal communication). Since my examples only
vary as to the “greenness” of the upper side and to the size of the
abdominal stripe, none of them fit completely the description of var.
hardeni. If anyone finds a T. davisi that meets the description of var.
hardeni, I think Dr. Sanborn would like to know about it.

Click the image for a larger version:

Technorati Tags: Tibicen davisi, cicadas, Mississippi

Adam Fleishman has captured some amazing photos of Cacama valvata. They were taken in Tucson, AZ. Elevation 2,450 ft.

See more of Adam’s work at his web site: Cometmoth Sight and Sound .

Correction: previously we said this was an Apache cicada. It is, in fact, a Cacama valvata.

Technorati Tags: Cacama valvata, Apache cicada

A New York Times article, An Irresistible Summer Soundtrack: Rattle, Buzz, Hiss, from August 20th mentions this site. I’m excited — you might not be.

I have an inbox worth of updates for this site that are on the way, so if you submitted something and you haven’t seen it appear, I’ll get to it soon enough.

Cicada researcher Kathy Hill took this unbelievable photo of 18 different USA Tibicen specimens.

I just took a photo of all the “eastern USA” Tibicens except
latifasciata, which we haven’t got yet (I didn’t include the “little
western” Tibicens like T. texana that are more centrally located
either). But I did also add T. duryi from the west coast and Q.
gigas, just for comparison.

I just wanted to prove that auletes IS the biggest USA cicada :)

Receiving a photo like this is like Christmas in August. Awesome.

Download the GIANT 2mb version.

Technorati Tags: Tibicen, auletes, cicada

I should hade made: “Cicadas on my Daughter’s Wedding Cake”!

Technorati Tags: Cicadas, Snakes on a Plane

Here’s a great photo of a Tibicen shedding its skin from Chris Millette.

Thought you might like to share my photo of a dog day cicada that I
made in Hummelstown, Pennsylvania last week.

Technorati Tags: Tibicen, dog day cicada

From an article on the CHINAdaily news site: Cicada knocks man off bike.

Wang was riding a bicycle when he spotted two boys catching cicadas. He rang his bell, warning the boys to stay away, which scared the boys as well as a cicada on the tree. The frightened cicada flew toward Wang at high speed and knocked him off his bicycle. Physical check-ups in a hospital indicated that Wang had bruises all over his body and had three broken ribs because of the fall

Thanks to Roy Troutman for passing along the article.

There’s an article in the News Times Live titled Dog-day cicadas have arrived. Dog-day cicadas are annual cicadas — the type you hear every summer.

The article mentions this website and the Cicada Central.

Thanks to Roy Troutman for spotting this article.