Talk about one in a million: Steve Turner found this Magicicada with one red eye and one blue (sort of like a Husky dog or David Bowie). This is one of the highlights of the emergence so far.
Genera of cicadas.
June 7, 2007
June 6, 2007
Chicago Trip Wrap Up
Sunday I spent the day at the Ryerson Woods Cicada Mania festival. The Lake County Forest Preserve folks did a fantastic job putting this event together: they had music, fun for kids like face painting and a costume contest, and entertaining & informative talks by cicada expert Gene Kritsky. I spent more time filming with the Fuji TV crew, looking for more white-eyed cicadas (no luck), and exploring trails. At the very end of my visit I discovered a large emergence of cicadas out by the river between a footbridge and a cabin (I think it was called the Stokes cabin). Around 5:30 pm I heard a sound like boiling water; I looked down and thousands of cicada nymphs were crawling from the ground. The experience was sublime. I even found a brown-eyed cicada.
A big shout out to everyone I saw wearing one of our t-shirts!
There are more cicada hikes going on at Ryerson this weekend. If you go, I recommend you go to the cabin by the river. This weekend there should be plenty more cicadas to see and hear.
Monday I made it out to the Brookfield Zoo, which is about 25 minutes south of O’Hare. I read that there was a large emergence of cicadas at the zoo and that the animals were feasting on the cicadas — I had to check it out. When I pulled into the parking lot of the zoo the noise of the cicadas was overwhelming! Kids were screaming “CICADA” and spending more time looking at cicadas than the zebras and bears. Most of the cicadas I saw and heard at the zoo were Magicicada cassini (small with all-black abdomens). I don’t remember seeing any animals eating cicadas — maybe they’ve had their fill. The Zoo carousel had two cicadas rides! How cool is that?
This is an example of lousy photo composition. If I were smart, I would have had a zoo animal in the background to prove this was at the zoo:
More video and photos to come... check back often…
No thanks to Sony, whose Handycam takes so-so video and isn’t compatible with Macs, Best Buy for lying to me when I asked if the Handycam was Mac compatible, Apple, for iMovie which does not support muxed Mpeg 2 video (which is what the Handycam makes), and Cannon, for making a digital camera with a macro setting that essentially turns every photo into a fuzzy blob.
Nothing to do with my trip to Chicago, but here’s a link to www.seventeenyearcicada.com. John’s been posting this URL on the message board every other day. Maybe if I post it on the homepage, he’ll chill out.
June 5, 2007
June 2, 2007
June 1, 2007
Chicago
Looking forward to seeing Gene Kritsky speak tomorrow at the Lake County Forest Preserve.
Blogs (some with pictures)
First, Catch Your Cicada .
Photo of the day
Photo by Joe Balynas.
Cicadas in Ann Arbor area?
Kaz wrote to tell us that Magicicadas are appearing around Ann Arbor MI, contrary to popular opinion — I’ll waiting for pictures to confirm…. Developing…
Update: these would be Brood X stragglers, not brood XIII. 🙂
May 28, 2007
Emergence Report for 5/28
There’s been some Wisconsin reports: Lake Geneva, WI and Iowa County. Will Iowa state be next?
Photos
There are hundreds of cicada photos on flickr. Here’s some favorites:
A large pile at the foot of a tree.
Diceroprocta vitripennis. out in Mississippi
Here’s a break in the Magicicada mania: a Diceroprocta vitripennis. This photo was taken by Cicada Mania regular Paul Krombholz in Jackson Mississippi just last week. Cicadas like Diceroprocta vitripennis are annual cicadas: they emerge each year in small numbers, and as you can see, they rely on camouflage for survival. Annual cicadas are also quite shy compared to the periodic Magicicadas — they have very different life strategies. American annual cicadas rely on stealth and cunning to survive while searching for a mate. Periodic cicadas rely on the fact that there are so many of them, that some will always survive to carry on the species.
Notes from Paul:
I am continuing this season to try to get pictures of all the cicadas in the
Jackson, Mississippi area. I just got a female specimen of Diceroprocta
vitripennis. I found it in low vegetation on a sand bar next to the Pearl
River. Thanks to John Davis and the collectors at the Mississippi Museum of
Science for the tip on where to look for them! From head to wing tips, it
is 38 mm, but the wings of this species are longer in relation to body
length than those of Tibicens. Body length of this vitripennis was only
22mm.
Magicicada Emerging from its Exuvia
Here’s some nice close ups (macros) of a Magicicada emerging from its exuvia (what most people call skin, or husk, or shell). The photos were taken by Michael Fiorenzo with a Nikon Coolpix 3200. Click the images for the full size originals.
Molting Magicicada:
Molting Magicicada:
Mating Magicicada:
May 25, 2007
Emergence Report for 5/26
New Emergence Locations: River Forest, Oak Park, Lenox (all Illinois)
Anyone in Wisconsin or Iowa see a cicada yet?
Photos:
More Flickr photo sets:
srfagan’s cicada photos. Nice photos of piles of cicada skins at the base of a tree.
Also read my article: Are cicadas safe to eat?. Watch out if you’re prone to gout.
