I made cicada Christmas lights using some LED USB Christmas lights, and some plastic cicada whistles from Australia.

CicadaMania Cicada Christmas Lights from Cicada Mania on Vimeo.

There are a few connections between cicadas and Christmas. Cicadas are typically active around Christmas in the Southern hemisphere. Cicadas are called Christmas Beetles in South Africa. There is also a cicada named the Kobonga Christmas Clanger in Australia (thx David Marshall and Kathy Hill ):

Since Christmas is the time of gift giving, cicada books make great gifts for cicada enthusiasts, young and old. Ebay.com typically has thousands of cicada items, including actual cicadas, as does Etsy. You can buy cicada specimens online as well. And of course there’s a variety of Cicada Mania shirts and mugs to choose from.

I almost forgot the cicada skin Christmas wreath. :)

I had some free time today so a made a video of the cicada-related objects I’ve collected over the past 15 or so years. The video includes cicada noise makers, whistles, action figures, a music comp, a kite, cicada soda, rubber toys, fishing lures and other fun stuff.

Cicada Toys, Art, Action Figures, Lures, Keyrings, Soda and other Objects from Cicada Mania on Vimeo.

More cicada video.

The Brood XIX (periodical cicada, 13-year cicadas, Magicicada, “locusts”) emergence that will happen this year will be the first emergence where social networking will play a big part in the location, documentation and spreading of information about the cicadas.

There are dozens of social media sites each with a unique purpose.

Twitter is great for short blasts of information, “We found #BroodXIX cicadas in North Carolina.” We have a Twitter feed too (@cicadamania).

Facebook is great for sharing websites, news stories, photos, video and longer bits of information with friends and family. We have a Cicada Mania page on Facebook.

Flickr is great for sharing photos of cicadas with anyone in the world. You can add your photos to the Cicada Photos pool or create your own pool for photos.

YouTube and Vimeo are great for sharing your videos with the world. We use Vimeo to host Cicada Mania videos.

Recommended tags:

Twitter style tags: #BroodXIX, #BroodXIXCicadas. You can modify the tags with other terms like the name of your state like #BroodXIXNorthCarolina

Flickr and YouTube Style Tags: BroodXIX, BroodXIXCicadas.

Update:

If you want to tag a species, you can use what’s called a “machine tag” or “triple tag” (see Wikipedia article on Tags).

taxonomy:binomial=Magicicada tredecim
taxonomy:binomial=Magicicada neotredecim
taxonomy:binomial=Magicicada tredecassini
taxonomy:binomial=Magicicada tredecula

If you’re tagging on sites that use spaces instead of commas (like flickr) put them in quotes when you enter them.

Here’s something fun for fans of entomology, Greek mythology and creativity: Greek Entomythology by Artemis Ippotis. Artemis (Diana Knight) has created a fun and whimsical book that tells Greek myths using photos of insects. The book is truly one of a kind! Artemis is also planing on offering the book as an iPad/iPhone app.

If you’re interesting in obtaining the book, write Diana at:

Diana Knight
The Manor,
Barton Mills,
Suffolk IP 28 6BL
UK

Or get it on Amazon.com!

The book features some of my Tibicen photos. I laughed out loud when I saw the Tibicen playing a lyre.

New, here’s a video promo for the book:

Christmas gives me a chance to use this image of a (cartoon) cicada nymph drinking the fluids of a Christmas tree.

Here’s some cicada stamps from around the world (with some other animals mixed in):

Thanks for Suzanne M for the scan of the Archie McPhee catalog featuring the amazing cicada keychain.

I actually finally found one of these thanks to a family member.

Ben from Quebec emailed us photos of the packaging for the Lucky Cicada Keychain.

Hello,
Here a picture of my toy cicada package. I bought it at Discovery Island (now closed), a former small theme park of Walt Disney World back in 1993.
Ben (QC)

BTW, I forgot to announce some good news — I finally found a working Lucky Cicada Keychain!

This whimsical display of dismembered and “reassembled” cicadas enjoying a Mongolian Hot Pot dinner can be yours! It’s for sale on ebay!

Awesome!