Enter the Tibicen: Summer is Here
The Tibicen is the genus of annual cicada most people are familiar with.
Here are some general details about Tibicen:
- They emerge every summer. They do not emerge in broods.
- They emerge in small numbers (small relative to periodical cicadas).
- They are timid and elusive compared to periodical cicadas.
- Most are physically larger than periodical cicadas.
- They are well camouflaged: their colors and patterns of colors help to hide them in their surroundings. They look like little military vehicles, IMHO.
- Colloquial names for Tibicens: August Dry Birds, Dog Day cicadas, Harvest Flies, Jar Flies, Bush Cicada (Tibicen dorsatus, formerly T. dorsata)
Some cool Tibicen posts and pages you should check out:
- Cicada researcher Kathy Hill’s photo of 18 different Tibicen species.
- It is possible to identify Tibicen just after they have molted: a visual tool to identify freshly molted Tibicens by Paul Krombholz
- Tibicen anatomy page (offsite link).
- Macro videos of a Tibicen by Roy Troutman
- My Tibicen photos, including Marvin, the CicadaMania mascot.
- All Tibicen posts on this website.
- All Tibicen galleries.
An image from Roy Troutman:
My Tibicen video from 1996
Tibicen tibicen (T. chloromerus, T. chloromera)
