Dedicated to cicadas, the most amazing insects in the world.
Photos of Brood X stragglers in Princeton, New Jersey, from back in 2017. The rest of the brood will emerge in 2021.
Magicicada cassini with mosaic pigment mutation:
Magicicada cassini with mosaic pigment mutation:
Female M. cassini. Notice the all-black abdomen:
Cicada skins and Albert Einstein:
Close up!
Magicicada cassini:
These are photos of a Brood V Magicicada straggler from 2015 taken in West Virginia taken by Matt Berger. This Magicicada septendecim emerged one year early.
The original photos are BIG; click/tap the images to see the large versions.
Magicicada tredecassini by Lenny Lampel Natural Resources Coordinator Mecklenburg County Park and Recreation Charlotte, NC. 2010.
Magicicada tredecassini (abdomen), Lower McAlpine Greenway 051010 (by Lenny Lampel):
Magicicada tredecassini, Lower McAlpine Greenway 051010 (by Lenny Lampel):
Magicicada tredecassini exuvia, Lower McAlpine Greenway 051010 (by Lenny Lampel):
Magicicada tredecassini exuvia on spicebush, Lower McAlpine Greenway 051010 (by Lenny Lampel):
We expect some periodical cicadas to emerge earlier and later than expected this year:
We’re getting a lot of reports from the Anacostia area of Washington D.C. and Maryland.
Here’s an example of someone Tweeting about a Brood X “straggler” on Twitter.
Cicada emergent #AnacostiaRiver pic.twitter.com/PqghrPQwVT
— Jenny M Glenn (@JMGconsult) May 10, 2019
Use the Cicada Safari App to report them. See a map of sightings reported by the app.
Periodical cicadas are cicadas insects that emerge periodically, and not annually. In North America, there are 7 species of periodical cicadas, 3 of which have a 17-year lifecycle, and 4 have a 13-year lifecycle, and all 7 belong to the genus Magicicada. Here is a chart that shows where they are expected to emerge next. Magicicada regularly straggle — some emerge before or after they’re expected to.
Typically 17-year cicada stragglers emerge 4 years early, and 13-year cicada stragglers emerge 4 years late, but 1, 2 and even 8 year deviations are possible — see the probability chart.
At this point, most people question the use of the term “straggler” to define something that emerged early rather than late. If you’re uncomfortable using the term “straggler”, you can use the term “precursor” for cicadas than emerge earlier than expected. You might make up your own slang for them, like “deviant”, “pioneer” or “laggard” too.
A new paper about periodical cicadas! View it: https://peerj.com/articles/5282/
“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)”
Authors: John R. Cooley, Nidia Arguedas, Elias Bonaros, Gerry Bunker, Stephen M. Chiswell, Annette DeGiovine, Marten Edwards, Diane Hassanieh, Diler Haji, John Knox, Gene Kritsky, Carolyn Mills, Dan Mozgai, Roy Troutman, John Zyla, Hiroki Hasegawa, Teiji Sota, Jin Yoshimura, and Chris Simon.
Abstract:
The periodical cicadas of North America (Magicicada spp.) are well-known for their long life cycles of 13 and 17 years and their mass synchronized emergences. Although periodical cicada life cycles are relatively strict, the biogeographic patterns of periodical cicada broods, or year-classes, indicate that they must undergo some degree of life cycle switching. We present a new map of periodical cicada Brood V, which emerged in 2016, and demonstrate that it consists of at least four distinct parts that span an area in the United States stretching from Ohio to Long Island. We discuss mtDNA haplotype variation in this brood in relation to other periodical cicada broods, noting that different parts of this brood appear to have different origins. We use this information to refine a hypothesis for the formation of periodical cicada broods by 1- and 4-year life cycle jumps.
