Cicada Fireworks
The Fourth of July should be fun this year at Roy Troutman’s place. Check out the Clustering Cicada fireworks he found.
The Fourth of July should be fun this year at Roy Troutman’s place. Check out the Clustering Cicada fireworks he found.
High-res versions of Roy Troutman’s marble-eyed cicada photos. Fascinating. You can see a color variation in all 5 eyes!
Roy has obtained another marble-eyed 17 year cicada found by Mike & Reed Finfrock of West Chester, Ohio.
White eyes are unique, maybe one in 100,000, but these marble eyed cicadas seem to be even more rare. They look like the red was torn away, revealing the gray below (like something you would see on a blinged out Honda Civic or an 80’s metal guitar).
Here’s something that’s truly amazing — a 17 year cicada with marble-colored eyes. White eyed cicadas are rare — but a mixed color eye cicada is amazing. Roy and the person how found the cicada should go play the lottery tonight, because luck is on their side.
An adult Magicicada:
A Magicicada suffering from the massospora cicadina fungus:
The fungus is spread during mating.
Cicadas in nets! Just as netting can be used to keep cicadas from pruning trees, netting can be used to keep cicadas healthy for study. The video features John Cooley of magicicada.org (a site you must visit if you like cicadas). We captured these cicadas and placed them in the net, where they could stay hydrated and shaded.
Here’s quite a few photos Roy has taken of the emergence. It’s kind of ironic that I’m staying with Roy and his family, and yet it’s taken me this long to post the photos.

I’m catching up on the photos Roy Troutman has sent me.
Here’s photos from a BBC photoshoot in Mariemont Ohio, taken on May 24th. The photos feature cicada expert Gene Kritsky.
Roy sent in a batch of photos from the Loveland OH emergence. I’ll post more and larger versions as soon as I’m done celebrating Memorial Day.