Cicada Mania

Dedicated to cicadas, the most amazing insects in the world.

April 14, 2015

Cicada People

Filed under: Researchers — Dan @ 9:10 pm

Cicada People

A little fun before the periodical cicada season starts. This is a “wordcloud” of the last names of people who have identified species of cicadas. The bigger the name, the more cicada IDs are attributed to them.

The are a couple of errors (misspelled Stal, split up Van Duzee). If you’re interested in making your own wordcloud, you can use the program R with the R package wordcloud.

11 Comments »

  1. Juliette & Laurel says:

    me and a friend decided to walk down 1/2 of my 4-5 mile long gravel road. When it was almost dark, we decided to turn around and to go back to my house. About 5 minutes into our trip back home, a bug started to follow us, attack us and chase us. The bug would fly near our necks, hands, arms, ears, hair, etc.. so being the crazy 15 teenage girls we are, we would scream, run for a few seconds, stop and walk, then get attacked again. We repeated this process for the whole 20 minutes it took to get back to our house.

    I have been researching multiple websites and I would like to know if you think this is a cicada or not.

    1. Dan says:

      Probably not a cicada. Were you holding a lighT? Insects are attracted to lights.

  2. Tina says:

    I was also mobbed while mowing my lawn. I was using a riding lawn mower. Many cicadas flew close, landed or chased me. I usually love mowing the lawn. I do not love large bugs.

  3. Donald Page says:

    I live in Northwest Tennessee, currently experiencing a hatch of a 13-year Brood. I want to report a cicada behavior I’ve never seen before. I just finished mowing my yard, using a riding mower. This chore usually takes 2-3 hours. During this period I found myself suddenly very attractive to cicadas. I had probably 50 – 60 cicadas land on me (arms, legs, chest, back, face, hands) and more on the mower I was riding. Never more than 4-5 at any one time. There were many more that flew past me close enough for me to notice – sometimes actually buzzing as they flew past. I assume the loud noise from the mower was the attraction but I was a bit flattered to be found attractive.

    I grew up several miles south of my current location and I’m familiar with a larger, noisier cicada that arrives later in the year. I’ve mowed hundreds of yards over the years but never encountered this behavior in what I call the “normal” cicada. We also called them “July Flies”. Has anyone else experienced this behavior?

    1. Dan says:

      July Flies are Tibicen. There are 15 species of those in your state. https://www.cicadamania.com/genera/usa.php?category=A&q=Tibicen&qs=TN&submit=SUBMIT

  4. Tammy Baldwin says:

    Now I’m back to being stupid. In all my years of seeing cicada emerging, I don’t recall ever seeing these thinner white ones. Thinner because to me they’re about 1/2 the size of what I’ll call normal cicada’s. All I recall seeing [including those still somewhat in their shell] were plump bodied, greenish ones. Do they all first emerge white or just certain ones? If so then I have no idea what ones are coming up in my yard. So guess I’m back to I don’t know what ones are coming up in my yard.

    1. Dan says:

      The white ones will turn black in a few hours, but yes, these are a different species that the green ones. The green ones are usually Tibicen. You might find their photo on this page.

  5. Tammy Baldwin says:

    Never mind because I think I’ve figured it out. I believe it’s Brood XIX Magicicada. I’ve lived at our location for 40+ years and this is the first I’d seen of this kind. I’ve had numerous ones emerge.

  6. Tammy Baldwin says:

    I live in Independence, MO and have cicada’s appearing that I’ve never seen before.
    I have a picture of one. Is there any way to send the picture to you and you let me know what it is? Thanks

    1. Dan says:

      You can email pictures to cicadamania@gmail.com

  7. Daniel.Z says:

    Hello,
    Just wanted to thank you for one of your past posts which describes the purpose of the enlarged clypeus of the cicada, that question had troubled me for a long time and I couldn’t manage to find the answer until now.
    On that note, do you know why it has that distinctive grill pattern (that we all know and love)?

Leave a comment. Questions about plants or snakes are deleted.

Leave a Reply to Juliette & Laurel Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Cicada T-shirts