Category: Genera

Genera of cicadas.

Categories
Brood X Chimneys Magicicada Periodical

Different types of Magicicada periodical cicada holes

Different types of Magicicada periodical cicada holes found in Princeton, NJ. Brood X, 2021. Generally speaking, their holes are about the size of a dime. You won’t see a spray or kickback of soil around the hole like you would when an animal is digging into the soil rather than coming out of it (cicadas are coming out).

Typical dime-sized cicada holes

Typical Holes

A hole with a corresponding mini cicada-chimney

Here's a hole and cap

A golf ball sized chimney over a hole

Mud Golf Ball

A hole borrowed into a hay bale laying on the ground

Hole in Hay

A hole in moss

A hole in moss

Holes in the underside of a rotten log, with a nymph!

Cicadas will burrow up from the soil of the ground and keep going into the rotting wood of a rotten log! I had to roll the log over to see it.
Holes in a Log

The inside view of a 4″ cicada chimney

Chimey

Video of a Nymph

Categories
Magicicada Periodical

17-year cicada cross word puzzle

Want to try a 17-year cicada crossword puzzle? It isn’t easy.

Download a large version of the image with the hints. Or use the one on this page:

Cicada Cross Word Puzzle

ACROSS
2. Two of them are…
7. Mistaken identity
8. Soil temperature sampler
10. Insect Singers site
11. The cicada’s old outfit
13. Where you’ll find the arches.
15. Keep a lid on it.
17. Longest lifecycle.
22. Ohio expert
24. Five.
27. Never on time.
28. A delicious drink.
29. I’m seeing red.
30. Grill.
31. 5 steps.
33. Final form.
35. Seven is the smallest.

DOWN
1. Un-popped collar.
3. Four to get off the Floor.
4. A “cool” cicada expert.
5. Three of Five.
6. Youngsters.
9. Plates
12. A rare color.
14. Nest knife.
16. Pitch shifter
18. Left Connecticut forever
19. Drum kit.
20. Amphetamine fungus.
21. Cicada banners.
23. Keep hanging on.
25. Mr. Softy.
26. Just six of these.
32. Beak.
34. Connecticut lab leader

Answers are here.

I used the Discovery Education Puzzlemaker to create this.

Categories
Cicada Mania Magicicada Periodical

Cicada Mania BINGO for Brood X 2021

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.

Categories
Brood XIII Magicicada Molting Nymphs Periodical

Periodical cicada nymphs emerging at night

One of the most fun periodical cicada experiences is watching thousands of nymphs emerge from the ground at night, 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.

Categories
Audio, Sounds, Songs Magicicada

Magicicada wing flicks

Female Magicicada cicadas do not sing, but they do make a sound by flicking their wings. These percussive wing flicks get the attention of male cicadas and it compels them to sing their court songs in response.

Here’s a video of a female cicada flicking her wings:

A video of a group of female cicadas flicking their wings in a tree:

You can fool male cicadas into thinking a finger snap is a wing flick. Here’s a video of a male cicada calling in response to fake wing flicks:

Categories
Magicicada Music

Dr. Chordate’s Periodical Cicada Graduation Song

Have a listen to Dr. Chordate’s Periodical Cicada Graduation Song, with an intro by Dr. Chordate. “This is a graduation song: the larvae of the 17-year periodic cicada finally emerge from the ground to transform into adults.”

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Books Gene Kritsky Magicicada Periodical

Periodical Cicadas: The Brood X Edition by Gene Kritsky

Renowned cicada researcher Gene Kritsky, PhD., has a new book out: Periodical Cicadas: The Brood X Edition. It was available for Kindle and paperback on Amazon.com. I assume Gene will have an updated version in 2038.

Periodical Cicadas: The Brood X Edition

Gene is also has a new link for the Cicada Safari App.

Categories
Magicicada Music Periodical

Seventeen Year Cicadas, a song by George Peter Block, Jr.

Here’s a song titled Seventeen Year Cicadas by George Peter Block, Jr,:

Categories
Magicicada Periodical Periodical Stragglers

Aside from Brood X, what else is happening with cicadas in the U.S.

Aside from Brood X, what else is happening in terms of Periodical cicadas?

  • Expect some early-emerging cicadas from Brood XIV, showing up 4 years early. Brood XIV exists in Georgia, Kentucky, Indiana, Massachusettes, Maryland, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia.
  • There might be some 1-year stragglers form Brood IX. Brood IX is in North Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia.
  • There might be some 4-year stragglers from Brood VI. Brood VI is found in Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Oklaholma. And Ohio?Brood VI is a weird one.
Categories
Magicicada Periodical

70,000 Magicicada cicadas = one adult American?

I was wondering how much an adult Magicicada weighs. According to Richard Karban’s paper “Transient habitats limit development time for periodical cicadas,” a female Magicicada septendecim weighs approximately 1.2 grams. (Karban, R. (2014), Transient habitats limit development time for periodical cicadas. Ecology, 95: 3-8. https://doi.org/10.1890/13-1518.1)

According to the CDC website, the average adult American human weighs 84051 grams.

That means the average adult weighs as much as 70,043 Magicicada cicadas.

Image unrelated:
Godzilla vs Cicada