Dedicated to cicadas, the most amazing insects in the world.
Here’s a video of a Neotibicen lyricen nymph crawling up the trunk of a fir tree, looking for a place to molt. Note the dark eyes and green wing buds. This particular pine tree is my go-to for Lyric cicadas. Here’s another: Neotibicen lyricen molting.
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Monday I was doing some landscaping and I found these Magicicada nymphs feeding on the roots of a boxwood shrub. They appear to be third-instar Brood II Magicicada nymphs. 9 years old!
Here are some Neotibicen lyricen molting in New Jersey July 2021.
Rich caramel eyes; blues & pinks in pronotal collar, legs, and mesonotum; green wings (that will stay green) and orange abdomen.
Here’s some photos of Molting Neotibicen tibicen tibicen cicadas taken in New Jersey in July of 2021.
The Princeton Battlefield (historical location of one of George Washington’s battles) has always been a great place to find Brood X periodical cicadas.
Here are a few photos I took last weekend:
A female Magicicada septendecim with white eyes & costal wing margin mating:
A female Magicicada septendecim with white eyes & costal wing margin:
Magicicada with beige eyes:
Many, many exit holes:
Triple exit holes in mud (kinda looks like a skull):
Egg nests carved into branches by the cicadas ovipositor:
The question I saw most this year (2021) was “what are the black spots on the back of cicadas for”? The people asking this question are specifically talking about Magicicada cicadas that have recently molted and are still white/cream colored and soft (teneral from the Latin word “tenen” meaning soft).
The area of the cicada where the black spots appear is called the pronotum — “pro”, meaning before in Greek, and “notum”, meaning the back, also in Greek. Before the back.
The spots contain a pigment that will gradually spread throughout a cicada body as it hardens, and transforms from white to black.
People speculate that the two black spots resemble eyes, and that might scare away predators. This might be possible, but I haven’t read anything to substantiate the hypothesis.
One of the most fun periodical cicada experiences is watching thousands of nymphs emerge from the ground at night, and crawl to the nearest vertical surface (hopefully a tree) and begin to molt.
This is a video by Roy Troutman from 2007 of the Brood XIII emergence, specifically in Ryerson Woods in Illinois:
Observing magicicada emergence at Ryerson Woods from Roy Troutman on Vimeo.
Here’s a time-lapse video, also by Roy, of a cicada nymph molting:
Magicicada nymph molting from Roy Troutman on Vimeo.
Megatibicen dorsatus is arguably the most beautiful cicada in the United States. Even it its teneral (meaning soft) form right after molting, in is visually impressive.
These three photos were taken by Greg Holmes of a Megatibicen dorsatus in its post-molting, teneral state.
These are photos of a Magicicada septendecim with yellow-white eyes, which is rare, but you can usually find one or two if you spend enough time looking for them. The photos were taken during the 2013 Brood II emergence in Metuchen, NJ.
Brood II Magicicada from Edison, New Jersey (2013).
A mess of Magicicada exuvia and corpses at the foot of a tree in Roosevelt Park in Edison NJ:
David Rothenberg, John Cooley, Asher Jay and others looking for cicadas in Roosevelt Park:
Magicicada septendecim laying eggs _ovipositing_ in Roosevelt Park in Edison NJ:
Magicicada septendecim laying eggs ovipositing in Roosevelt Park in Edison NJ:
Magicicada septendecim with Massospora fungus found at the Edison Memorial Tower Park in Edison NJ:
Many Magicicada emergence holes in Edison Memorial Tower park in Edison NJ:
Mating Magicicada in Roosevelt Park in Edison NJ:
Mating Magicicada in Roosevelt Park NJ:
Mirror Image – Edison Memorial Tower Park:
