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

August 23, 2008

Cicada vs. Cicada Killer

A cicada vs. Cicada Killer Wasp, typically isn’t much of a battle — the cicada typically loses.

My friend David Wilson made a display out of an old clock featuring a cicada and Cicada Killer Wasp locked in battle (or the wasp going grocery shopping for its larvae, depending on how you want to look at it).

Check it out, I think it’s very cool.

David said:

The thing is a diorama I made of an unnoticed moment in history. With New Brunswick [New Jersey], as seen from Highland Park circa 1900, in the back round.

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June 13, 2008

A creative use of cicada skins: a cicada wreath

Filed under: Brood X | Cicada Arts — Dan @ 3:06 pm

A Cicada wreath constructed in 2004 by Jenny Pate:

Cicada Wreath

I think it’s awesome! Thanks to Jenny’s husband Bill for sharing.

Anyone else have an example of cicada arts & crafts to share?

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June 5, 2008

Cicada: Exotic Views comic book

Filed under: Books | Cicada Arts | Pop Culture — Dan @ 1:14 am

Davy Shian has created a funny and educational comic book about cicadas, called Cicada: Exotic Views. Cicada: Exotic Views features 87 pages of comics and cicada photographs. I found it LOL funny, the illustration style is pretty neat, and the book itself is high-quality, not flimsy like the typical comic book. It is without a doubt an excellent and unique addition to the cicada books available today.

Cicada: Exotic Views comic book

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November 4, 2007

Cicada Horror Films, Solar Power and Fish Lures

Filed under: Cicada Arts | Pop Culture | Roy Troutman — Dan @ 8:56 am

Odds and Ends:

Nanotech News: Cicadas wings are being used as the inspiration for building better solar technology. (thanks Roy)

Peng Jiang, an assistant professor of chemical engineering, is drawing inspiration from the eyes of moths and the wings of cicadas to create unusual new anti-reflective and water-repellant coatings — coatings that appear to have potential to make solar cells both more efficient and self-cleaning. Windows in cars and homes, computer screens and other consumer products also could improve thanks to the super-transparent coatings.

Russian fishing lure company www.apico-fish.ru used one of Roy Troutman’s cicada photos for a recent ad for cicada themed lures.

Russian Cicada Lure

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June 5, 2007

Indentify this Cicada!

Filed under: Cicada Arts | Identify — Dan @ 7:40 pm

Dana Holmes photographed this cicada at the Pug Party this Saturday in Chicago. I can’t identify the species — can you???

Emma

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May 20, 2007

Hello Cicada

Filed under: Cicada Arts | Japan | Pop Culture — Dan @ 9:43 am

In Japan cicadas are called Semi, a.k.a. 蝉.

Semi

That’s your cicada fact of the day.

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May 5, 2007

Color a Magicicada

Filed under: Brood XIII | Cicada Arts | Magicicada — Dan @ 4:00 pm

Somebody asked for a picture of a cicada they can color with Crayons. Here you go: Magicicada Coloring Sheet PDF. You need the Adobe Acrobat Reader to view it on Windows, and Macs will display it without an extra plug-in.

Here’s what it looks like when you print it out:

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August 28, 2005

A Cicada Poem from David Granville

Filed under: Cicada Arts — Dan @ 5:09 pm

Cicada Songs (for “Cicada Mania”)

They say your songs
portend the end of summer
just as chirping robins
usher in the spring air.

Listen to the sound
whirring, buzzing through
leaves of trees that shelter
the thrumming brood.

Insect monks chant
hymns of nature
for us and for
their silent females: “mate her.”

More musical than electric currents
that hum along power lines,
your symphony hovers,
guarding the sultry night like armored palatines.

Constant and pervasive,
we humans sometimes hear
sometimes ban your frequencies,
lulled to sleep by drums so dear.

Air conditioners and headphones
drown out your beautiful noise
but others sing with you
till Fall’s frost steals these little joys.

-DFG

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May 3, 2005

A Chinese idiom

Filed under: Cicada Arts — Dan @ 5:26 pm

From Paul Frank’s Language Jottings:

Chán bù zhī xuě: The cicada knows nothing of snow. Said of someone who’s ignorant or inexperienced. There’s also the word huigu, platypleura kaempferi, a kind of bright-colored cicada, and the saying huigu bu zhi chun qiu, the cicada is ignorant of spring or autumn, i.e., limited in experience or vision.

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May 2, 2005

No tea is served until the cicadas have sucked on the plants

Filed under: Cicada Arts — Dan @ 8:45 pm

Here’s a story about oolong tea:

This type of tea, sometimes called “Oriental Beauty Tea” uses green leaf cicadas to suck on the plants before the leaves are harvested and fermented. Not only do the leaves have quite a variety of colors, but the taste of the tea is unique with its fruit and honey flavor.

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