Comments on: Cacama valvata Cicada

By: Dan

Dan — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 12:00:44 +0000

Only 4 species of cicada have 13 year cycles, all belonging to the genus Magicicada. The annual cicadas you see every year have multi-year cycles, but 1) only a few years long, and 2) they aren’t synchronized so they arrive every year.

By: Suzanne Farrar

Suzanne Farrar — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 12:47:27 +0000

I just found the maps on the 17 and 13 year cicadas. GA has 13 year cicadas in 2011 and we are about 20 miles from the GA line. But I still see cicadas every year, so does each bug have a 13 year cycle or are the whole group of them only supposed to hatch out every 13 years?

By: Alysia Cunningham

Alysia Cunningham — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 17:04:29 +0000

I live in Western Pennsylvania. We have the “annual” cicadas emerge every year – usually around mid-July. You know that summer is half way over when you start to hear the cicadas at night. But for the last week or so, I’ve been seeing a lot of cicadas flying around that are nothing like I’ve seen before! These ones are HUGE! They look exactly like the one in the above picture. There have been several times they have flown into windows at my home & work, when you get a close look, it’s almost like they are cicadas on steroids – atleast that’s how I’ve been referring to them! They look almost like birds when they are in flight. What kind of cicada are these, and why are they in Western PA!?

By: Martin Kolner

Martin Kolner — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 02:52:19 +0000

The genus Cacama is restricted to the SW US and Mexico. It is generally associated with the genus Opuntia or prickly pear cactus. The adults feed on the pads and lay eggs on other plants that overhang the Opuntia. Nymphs drop off the plants and burrow into the ground around the prickly pears. Also noted in the Phoenix area that eggs only hatch during a monsoon rain when the humidity is high and temperatures are cooler. Exit holes of this genus are clustered around the prickly pear cactus. These observations done during graduate work at ASU in the early 70s.

By: Jessica

Jessica — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 22:27:07 +0000

We live in NS Canada and just found one in our driveway. The kids thought it was totally cool! We’ve been hearing them for years around this time of year but have never seen one.

By: Justin DeMott

Justin DeMott — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 03:44:59 +0000

I live in Maine and found one in my pool this morning. I’m 34 and that is the first one I’ve ever seen!

By: GymeeHoffa

GymeeHoffa — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 05:03:08 +0000

we just found some in detroit, michigan. they scream like human beings.They are pretty scary to be bugs..

By: Ingrd

Ingrd — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 10:51:40 +0000

Hello Blair,I live in Canada. Grew up on a farm and the cicadas where always active during haymaking time, and we called them the haymaking beetle. Some forty years later, I saw one for the very firt time. I’ certain it was a Cacama valvata. It too was in the end stage of life. After speaking with neighbors, and long-time farmers, it would seem that they do not often show themsleves. They are quite harmless as far as I know, they certainly were of no threat to our many and varried crops over the years.

By: blair

blair — Sat, 09 Jul 2011 03:58:15 +0000

Hi Im from new zealand and we have thousands of these cicadas..they actually cause noise pollution…no lie…they are harmless and provide a good sourse of food for they bird life…we used to feed them to our frogs…

By: kira

kira — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 22:29:20 +0000

is….is…is that as big as the tree trunk? we don`t have them here in Michigan but…..