Cicada Mania

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

December 31, 2022

2023 Cicada Forecast

Filed under: Brood XXII | Cicada Mania — Dan @ 10:34 am

This is the Cicada Forecast for 2023.

Happy New Year!

Periodical cicadas: No periodical cicadas in the United States, India, or Fiji are expected to emerge in 2023.

There is a chance of Brood XXII Magicicada stragglers emerging 4 years early in parts of Ohio, Kentucky, Louisiana, and Mississippi. Read the paper Evolution and Geographic Extent of a Surprising Northern Disjunct Population of 13-Year Cicada Brood XXII (Hemiptera: Cicadidae, Magicicada). Spurious (small, unmapped) broods of Magicicada are possible.

Protoperiodical cicadas: Emergences of protoperiodical cicadas depend on multiple factors including species, location, and cumulative rainfall. Protoperiodical species belonging to the genera Okanagana and Platypedia have years of great abundance but are not as predictable as Periodical cicadas like Magciciada. We can’t say exactly when they’ll emerge in your location.

Scientists like Tim McNary track Platypedia putnami looking for a pattern in their emergences. Certain Okanagana emerge depending on factors like proximity to other species and rainfall accumulations (read Chatfield-Taylor 2020).

Both Periodical and Protoperiodical lifecycles appear to help these cicadas avoid total consumption by above-ground predators by overwhelming them in great numbers (too many to eat them all, so some always survive).

Annual cicadas: Most cicadas appear annually, so we expect most cicadas that emerged in 2022 to emerge in 2023.

We can expect to see Cacama, Diceroprocta, Hadoa, Megatibicen, Neocicada, Neotibicen, and Quesada in North Amercia. Europe can expect Cicada orni, Lyristes, and Many other species. Japan can expect Auritibicen, Hyalessa, and many other species.

Countries in the southern hemisphere experience cicada-friendly weather September-March, so most locations in South America, Africa, southern Asia, Australia, and New Zealand that experience cicadas are in the midst of their cicada seasons at the start of 2023. Keep an eye on the latest cicada observations on iNaturalist.

While there are highs and lows in abundance, at least some annual emerge every year. Looking at how often people in Australia search for cicadas & cicada gives us a hint at how abundant cicadas are each year. Do you see a pattern?

Google Trends searches for Cicada & Cicadas in Australia:
Australia Data from 2012 to 2022

The future of cicadas on Earth: with each year the number of cicadas grows less and less. Cutting forests for giant warehouses, new neighborhoods, and even solar farms destroys cicada habitat. Spraying pesticides for invasive and nuisance insects eliminates cicadas as well as less desirable insects. Splitting woodland and meadows with new roads sub-divides cicada habitats and reduces their chance to meet and reproduce. If you see and hear fewer cicadas with each passing year, you know why.

November 29, 2021

2021 Cicada Gift Guide

Filed under: Cicada Mania | Toys and Amusements — Dan @ 12:50 pm

No matter what you celebrate — Christmas, Hanukkah, birthdays, graduations, Treat Yourself Day — cicada-related items are a great gift! At the end of 2021, I’m sharing cicada gift-related ideas, here and on social media. Check back for more tips.

The Season of the Cicadas by Les Daniels

The Season of Cicadas is the best general book about North American cicadas in print.

A photo guide to common cicadas of the Greater Sydney region by Nathan Emery

This is the best book about cicadas found in Australia in print. Get it from this website.

A photo guide to common cicadas of the Greater Sydney region

Cicadas of New Zealand by Olly Hills

This is the only book about the cicadas of New Zealand that I know of. Get it from this website.

Cicadas of New Zealand

Headbone Brood X Notebook

Many will remember the Brood X cicada emergence. How about a souvenir of the emergence and a useful notebook? Check out headbone’s Brood X notebook.

Headbone

Sue Fink’s Cicada Suite

Sue Fink’s “Cicada Suite” features 2 songs about cicadas on an adorable cicada-shaped flash drive. Irresistible!

Sue Fink

Toy Cicadas

Toy plastic cicadas? Why not. It’s winter in the northern hemisphere, so these fake cicadas will have to do.

Periodical Cicadas: The Brood X Edition by Gene Kritsky

This is a good souvenir of the 2021 Brood X emergence.

Cicadas!: Strange and Wonderful by Laurence Pringle. This book is good for kids, well-illustrated, and covers annual cicadas so it’s good any year.

Cecily Cicada: 2021 Edition by Kita Helmetag Murdock and Patsy Helmetag

Cecily Cicada is a fictional story for kids about a cicada named Cecily. It is a perennial favorite.

Each day I’ll add more gift ideas here.

April 18, 2021

Cicada Mania BINGO for Brood X 2021

Filed under: Cicada Mania | Magicicada | Periodical — Dan @ 5:48 am

Here’s something fun: Cicada Mania BINGO. Use this BINGO card to keep track of everything you see, hear or do in context to the Brood X emergence. Here’s a PDF version. Tips below the image of the card:

Cicada Mania

Tips:

  1. Pictures of cicada Holes and Chimneys
  2. Magicicada septendecim photos & song
  3. A cicada with white eyes
  4. Cicadas with blue and yellow eyes
  5. Video of Cicada Nymphs at Night
  6. Cicadas with Massospora cicadina fungus infections
  7. Magicicada septendecula photos & songs
  8. Cicada eggs and young nymphs
  9. Are cicadas safe to eat?
  10. Magicicada cassini photos & songs
  11. Video of a cicada laying eggs
  12. Links to the Cicada Safari app.
  13. Cicada songs, including Choruses
  14. Wing Flicks Videos

I’ll probably do a version for summertime cicadas too.

January 1, 2021

The Philacicada Society

Filed under: Charles Remington | Chris Simon | Cicada Mania | Folklore | Gene Kritsky | Ivan Huber — Tags: — Dan @ 12:38 pm

The Philacicada Society existed for a brief time (to my knowledge) in the 1990s. There was at least one mail (NOT email) newsletter (I’ll eventually photocopy it).

The information here is over 20 years old — don’t try to join. 🙂

Here’s the original information:

I’m excited to announce the formation of the Philacicada Society. Cicada maniacs, please read on! (Special thanks to Dr. Ivan Huber and Charles Remington.)

“The huge scientific and public enthusiasm for Magicicada Brood II this year included some queries about a simple organization (and newsletter) devoted toMagicicada and perhaps other cicadas (around 4,000 species are known worldwide).In response, I agreed to do some initial organizational work, and Professor IvanHuber, of Fairleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey, volunteered to edit a cicada newsletter.”

“You are hereby invited to become a charter member of this relatively informal society. You will join by sending to Treasurer Kritsky $5.00 as dues, to cover any minimal expenses.”

“The Newsletter would be perhaps quarterly and would contain anything appropriate, certainly including:”

  1. suggestions for observations and experiments
  2. brief reports of interesting findings (full scientific papers to be published of course in the usual formal journals)
  3. suggestions and plans for producing greatly needed book(s) on cicadas for the respected “intelligent layman”, including children, and for the entomological world (maybe a rush Magicicada Manual with a few different specialists doing different chapters); Gene Kritsky, Tom Moore, and Monte Lloydhave books moving toward publication; Magicicadais arguably the most biologically remarkable insect (even animal or organism?) in the world; the superb new Williams & Simon review is a basic reference and bibliography
  4. requests for research help — livestock, etc.
  5. planning for observing forthcoming hatches– Brood III, IV, etc.

“To emphasize a serious commitment to the Society and to organize mutual input, there is a need for informal charter officers and directors. I took the liberty of asking leading Magicicada workers to serve on such a Board, and they agreed. Sucha Board is as follows:

Chairman: Chris Simon
Treasurer: Gene R. Kritsky
Editor: Ivan Huber

Directors:
James & Maxine Health
Edward Johnson
Richard Karban
Monte Lloyd
Chris T. Maier
Thomas E. Moore
Charles L. Remington
Allen F. Sanborn
Kimberly G. Smith
Kathy S. Williams

In the future, more formality may be wanted in choosing officers and directors, including some cicada workers outside the U.S.A.

Please send Gene Kritsky names and addresses of possible members, to be circularized.

Cordially,
Charles Remington

Here is the form for joining the society. Print it out and mail it in.

old Philacicada society form

Dan’s Cicada Diary for 1996

Filed under: Brood II | Cicada Mania | Magicicada | Periodical — Dan @ 12:05 pm

Here’s something I wrote in 1996 to chronicle the Brood II cicada emergence in 1996. It’s probably meant to be semi-humorous.

Dan’s Cicada Diary for 1996.

Sunday, May 19th: Metuchen, New Jersey; I found the first desiccated cicada nymph exoskeleton on my patio. My cat disappears.

Tuesday, May 21st: I found about 40 nymph exoskeletons on my patio, a pine tree, and a maple tree. I also spotted an adult climbing the maple and two crippled adults rolling about the base of the tree.

Wednesday, May 22nd: Bonanza! I found about 500 adults perched on just about everything in my yard: trees, patio furniture, the foundation of my home, the garden hose, garbage cans, the missing cat’s water dish, my hair…just plain everywhere! Gruesome!

Saturday, May 25th: Avenel, New Jersey; Party at the Ritzow’s. Literally, hundreds of adult cicadas perched high above in oak trees sneer at decadent humans sipping martini’s, playing croquet. Bourgeois homo sapiens…bah humbug!

Thursday, May 30th: Metuchen, New Jersey; Still no sign of the cat. Sitting outside on my patio around 8:30 pm I hear a “snap”, “crackle” and “popping” sound. Rice Crispies? No. More like cicadas nymphs crawling out of their holes and onto my garden wall to molt into adulthood. Not the loveliest sight.

Saturday, June 1st: Westfield, New Jersey; Dave Wilson and Claire Adas’ wedding. A beautiful ceremony and reception, with the exception of the 9000 uninvited cicadas: crawling up people’s legs, crunching underfoot, landing in refreshments…a moment to cherish and remember!

Tuesday, June 4th: North Edison, New Jersey; The cicadas have begun to sing! All together they sound like a Boeing 767 is circling 40 feet overhead. The sound is that awesome. 10 inch deep piles of dying post-coitus adults litter the base of trees. The invasion has only begun!

Wednesday, June 5th – Monday, June 17th: Metuchen, North Edison, Colonia, Avenel, New Jersey; The invasion is in full effect! Homeowners in North Edison and Colonia report having to haul away the dying bodies of cicadas inwheelbarrows! Residents describe the cicadas’ combined mating screams as “loud as a UFO” [how do they know what a UFO sounds like?] and “like a Mack Truck was floating ten foot above your head”! Someone even told me cicadas taste like shrimp! I guess they made the best of a bad situation.

Wednesday, June 26th: Metuchen, New Jersey; It appears the invasion is over. All that remains is the dismembered, rotting corpses and the memories, sweet, sweet, memories. But remember, They’ll be back…in the year 2013!

Saturday, August 3rd: Metuchen, New Jersey; Looking out my second-story window I can clearly see the damage done by the 17-year cicadas. Brown patches of dead leaves speckle local oak and maple trees, revealing the branches where the female cicada has chosen to lay her eggs; an interesting “natural disaster”, but, not as heart-breaking as an earthquake or a flood. Clearly, the most provocative news regarding cicadas is the current hatch of annual cicadas, which are larger than the “17-year” cicadas (thoroughly illustrated within this web page) and greener. Another dissimilarity is the difference in their respective mating calls: while the “17-year” cicada makes a whirring sound somewhere between the motor of a vacuum cleaner and a car alarm, the “annual” cicada sounds more like a lawn sprinkler or maybe a sewing machine. Although I can clearly hear hundreds of “annual” cicadas and I have found their shells, I haven’t visually located a single one! Another cicada-related event has been the recent hatch of “cicada killer” wasps. These two-inch long giant wasps only prey upon, our friend, the defenseless cicada. I haven’t located these creatures either, but, they are definitely out there. Cicadas beware!

Wednesday, August 26th: Metuchen, New Jersey; the Tibicen cicadas continue to sing…

Wednesday, November 6th: Metuchen, New Jersey; they are all dead or sucking on roots underground.

The 17-Year Cicada – Something I wrote in 1997

Filed under: Cicada Mania | Magicicada | Periodical — Dan @ 12:00 pm

This is from my “Cicada Humor” page from 1996-1997. It’s semi-humorous. For serious information visit the facts-only 17-year cicada page.

The 17-Year Cicada

Every 17 years a fearsome biological monstrosity drags its way to the surface of the earth. It comes only to mate and spawn; however, it imparts terror and disgust in the hearts and minds of every man, woman, child, and beast unfortunate enough to cross its path. This is no Hollywood fantasy, ladies and gentlemen, this creature is real, horribly real! Cast your trembling eyes upon mother nature’s most disturbing insectoid aberration…T

he Cicada a.k.a. “The 17-Year Locust”
July 17th, 1997

Seriously, folks, the cicada isn’t a locust, it’s, well, a cicada (a member of the Homoptera order of insects). These charming creatures are best known for their intense mating call, which sounds more or less like a lawn sprinkler, or a miniature AH-64 Apache Black Helicopter. When 10,000 or so of these suckers start screaming in your neighborhood you’ll think you’re in the middle of Apocalypse Now. Nowisthe time! Depending on where you live, these heinous herbivores should be dive-bombing your friends and family any day now.

Actually, they are more likely tofallout of a tree thanfly, but, rest assured, they will be landing somewhere on your body sometime soon.

Ilive in central New Jersey and right now we are up to our mandibles in a plague of these sap slurping oddities. Some breeds, including the green/yellow striped cicadas, rear their ugly heads every year, but, fortunately not in great numbers. The “periodic”, black-bodied, red-eyed, spawn of Beelzebub cicadas only present themselves once every 17 years;unfortunately,there are literally millions of them. Worst of all, they have a face, just like you or me!

Periodic cicadas live to be 17 years old (13 years in southern states), which means they’re the only insect that qualifies for a driver’s license in New Jersey. Actually, these creatures only spend two to four weeks of their lives as an adult. They spend the first 17 years underground sucking on roots! Exciting! Once the adults have mated, the female drills a hole in a tree branch with her butt (technically her ovipositor) and lays her eggs. The eggs soon hatch and the “nymphs” fall to the ground where they feed on root sap. As soon as the adults mate they croak and drop to the ground where they will decay and stink. If I were you I wouldn’t hang out under any trees this year. In the end, your best offense will be a shovel and a bucket, or, a hungry golden retriever.

March 10, 2019

Cicada Cupcakes

Filed under: Cicada Mania — Dan @ 1:01 am

Cicada Cupcakes

Cicada Cupcakes

March 10th is my birthday and for my birthday my friend Lisa baked me cicada cupcakes with chocolate cicadas (made with cicada-shaped molds, not actual cicadas dipped in chocolate).

Yes, as of 2019, I am 50 which is 1 year short of 3 17-year Magicicada cycles.

February 17, 2019

French Cicada

Filed under: Cicada Mania | Cryptotympanini | France | Lyristes | Tibicen — Dan @ 8:00 am

Cicada Mania has been around since 1996. It’s lived on at least five different domains (cicadamania.com is the current domain). Lots of history. Yesterday I was looking at old versions of the site on archive.org’s Wayback machine, which created archives of websites. I came across this post from 2001 and thought “these photos are not on the current site, let me upload them.

So here’s a copy of the original post, approximately 18 years later.

BTW, the cicada is Lyristes/Tibicen plebejus.

French Cicada

Cicada Experts, try to ID this French cicada!

Hello, In the south of France last week I saw a big insect. From the moment it climbed up a flower (picture 1) till the moment it became the one of picture 2 (10 hours later) I made 300 pictures with my Sony Mavica. Some questions; a) is this a cicada b) if so, whats the name c) do you know a site where I can find the sound of this species d) who could be interested in my pictures of the complete metamorphosis Greetings, H. Bakkenes Holland.

Tibicen/Lyristes plebejus

Tibicen/Lyristes plebejus

[Adding the old “back to top” cicada for fun.]

Back to top

September 22, 2018

Cicada Images and Video for Sharing

Filed under: Cicada Mania — Dan @ 12:05 am

In case you want cicada images and videos to share, we’ve uploaded images to social media sites to make it easy to share the images. These images are often in the Creative Commons, or otherwise owned by Dan, and Dan doesn’t care if you share them for non-commercial reasons (i.e. fun).

Other images, videos, and audio on the site are copyrighted by the people who created that media, and I can’t grant use of their work.

Images and video of Magicicada cicadas (like those in Brood X)

Image of a male Magicicada septendecim (periodical/17-year species)

License: Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic.

Magicicada septendecim, male

Image of a male Magicicada septendecim (periodical/17-year species)

License: Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic.

Magicicada septendecim Cicada

Image of Magicicada septendecim (periodical/17-year species)

License: © All Righted Reserved. People can share for non-commercial fun. Commercial enterprises (like the Media) need to ask permission to use.

Magicicada on a leaf.

There are more images from the series which I have been allowing the media/press to use with permission and attribution.

There’s an abundance of videos on our YouTube channel, for example:

How To Identify the Species of a Periodical Cicada / “Locust” / Magicicada

License: © All Righted Reserved. People can share for non-commercial fun. Commercial enterprises (like the Media) need to ask permission to use.

17 Facts About 17 Year Cicadas

License: © All Righted Reserved. People can share for non-commercial fun. Commercial enterprises (like the Media) need to ask permission to use.

Images and video of Neotibicen (summertime cicadas in the U.S.):

Do not use these to represent Brood X/Periodical Cicadas.

Image of a molting male Neotibicen tibicen (annual summertime species)

License: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic.

Male Tibicen tibicen (formerly Tibicen cholormera) Cicada

Image of a female Neotibicen tibicen (top) and female Neotibicen lyricen (bottom) (annual summertime types)

License: Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic.

Tibicen tibicen (T) and Tibicen lyricen (B) dorsal view

Video of a Neotibicen tibicen (annual summer species molting):

License: © All Righted Reserved. People can share for non-commercial fun. Commercial enterprises (like the Media) need to ask permission to use.

Social Media

And like everyone else, we upload content to Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Feel free to share that stuff as well. Knock your socks off.

September 9, 2018

About Cicada Mania

Filed under: Cicada Mania — Dan @ 8:29 am

Hello!

Errors

This website likely has grammar and factual errors. If you find one, feel free to send me an email: cicadamania@gmail.com.

Terms and Conditions, Privacy Policy, etc.

Visit the Terms & Conditions page if you are so inclined. I’m sure the website “uses Cookies”, but I don’t do anything with the resulting data other than to see which pages on the site are the most popular.

Dan Mozgai

Dan Mozgai

My name is Dan Mozgai, and Cicada Mania is my website.

Use this email address to contact me: cicadamania@gmail.com.

I usually have time to answer questions via email, Twitter, Facebook, and phone calls. If I don’t know the answer, I’ll refer you to an expert who does.

Some other places to find me: iNaturalist and BugGuide.

Sharing media on the website

Here are some cicada images you are welcome to share.

Here are some tips for the press planning to report on Magicicada periodical cicada emergence — mostly to steer you away from using photos of the wrong species.

Cicada Mania History

2019 will mark Cicada Mania’s 23st year on the web. Here’s what the site looked like back in 1998 two years after its launch. This is the original logo:

Cicada Mania logo/>

Cicada Mania started as an online photo album meant to share photos from the 1996 emergence of Brood II, particularly photos from a friend’s outdoor wedding, where the cicadas were an “uninvited guest”.

The 2004 Brood X emergence was a fantastic time for Cicada Mania: highlights included me appearing on CNN, NPR, and WABC radio, and seeing 50,000 site visitors in one day. Here is a transcript of my CNN appearance.

The 2007 Brood XIII emergence was fantastic as well. I finally got to meet fellow cicada enthusiasts and researchers Roy Troutman, Jerry Bunker, Gene Kritsky and Joe Green. I was also interviewed for Fuji TV.

Cicada Mania currently contains over 1500 photos of cicadas (many high-res), videos, sound clips, a blog, plenty of FAQs and articles, of course, t-shirts and mugs, which are my attempt at funding the site.

Some papers I’ve contributed to:

  • The periodical cicada four-year acceleration hypothesis revisited and the polyphyletic nature of Brood V, including an updated crowd-source enhanced map (Hemiptera: Cicadidae: Magicicada). Cooley JR, Arguedas N, Bonaros E, Bunker G, Chiswell SM, DeGiovine A, Edwards M, Hassanieh D, Haji D, Knox J, Kritsky G, Mills C, Mozgai D, Troutman R, Zyla J, Hasegawa H, Sota T, Yoshimura J, Simon C. (2018) < PeerJ 6:e5282 https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.5282
  • Evolution and Geographic Extent of a Surprising Northern Disjunct Population of 13-Year Cicada Brood XXII (Hemiptera: Cicadidae, Magicicada). Gene Kritsky, Roy Troutman, Dan Mozgai, Chris Simon, Stephen M Chiswel, Satoshi Kakishima, Teiji Sota, Jin Yoshimura, John R Cooley. American Entomologist, Volume 63, Issue 4, 12 December 2017, Pages E15—E20, https://doi.org/10.1093/ae/tmx066
  • Psychoactive plant- and mushroom-associated alkaloids from two behavior modifying cicada pathogens. Authors: Greg R. Boyce, Emile Gluck-Thaler, Jason C. Slot, Jason E. Stajich, William J. Davis, Tim Y.James, John R. Cooley, Daniel G. Panaccione, Jørgen Eilenberg, Henrik H. De Fine Licht, Angie M. Macias, Matthew C. Berger, Kristen L. Wickert, Cameron M. Stauder, Ellie J. Spahr, Matthew D. Maust, Amy M. Metheny, Chris Simon, Gene Kritsky, Kathie T. Hodge, Richard A.Humber, Terry Gullion, Dylan P.G. Short, Teiya Kijimoto, Dan Mozgai, Nidia Arguedas, Matt T. Kasson. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.funeco.2019.06.002.

Some articles that mention or are about Cicada Mania:

Roy Troutman

Many of the cicada photos and videos on the site come from Roy Troutman. Visit the Roy Troutman page for links to his images and his contact information.

Supporters

Over the years many people have supported this site, including some celebrated people:

  1. Elizabeth McGrath: U.S.A. based artist.
  2. Laura Imbruglia: Aussie singer/songwriter.
  3. Death Cab for Cutie: U.S. rock band.

More »

Cicada T-shirts