Cicada ManiaNew emoji are coming soon. A adult butterfly will be added to the list of insect emoji, which include a beetle, ant, caterpillar (aka larval butterfly) and bee. You know what is missing? A cicada.I doubt we’ll get it now that the emoji are decided by a consortium, but you never know.
It could be this one:
Everyone knows cicadas love to sing (the males) or be serenaded (the females).
A lot of people like to write songs inspired by cicadas. If you search online music stores or YouTube, you’ll find hundreds of songs about cicadas, in every genre imaginable including rap, country, rock, folk, dance, parody, classical and experimental.
Here are some cicada songs:
The Cicada Song by CincyPolly
Genre: Rock.
Cicada Serenade by The Pheromones
Genre: 1980s Rap.
Cicada By Hannah Gansen
Laura Imbruglia sings her song Cicada on a talk show for teens (YouTube Link):
(You might want to skip ahead 20 seconds to when the music starts.)
Here’s one of my favorite bands, Southern Culture on the Skids peforming their song Cicada Rock (YouTube link):
CICADA Song – SICKA CICADAS by Kathy Ashworth:
Not quite a song, but still very much an audio performance about cicadas: Tessa Farmer and David Rothenberg perform Magicicada in Dublin (YouTube Link):
Do you have a favorite cicada song? Let us know in the comments!
Bonus: Another cicada song send by a reader:
CICADA by Liam Titcomb (YouTube link):
And more:
Seventeen Years (a cicada love song) – Lloyd H. Miller (YouTube Link):
Baby Bug by Samm Bennett:
“Seventeen Years” by Jen Schaffer and the Shiners:
I Ate A Cicada Today:
Periodic Cicadas by Dr. Chordate:
No video for this song, but Dr Chordate wrote a song called Periodic Cicadas.
I buy things just because they’re cicada related.
Here is my latest purchase:
This week I bought The 17-Year Locust Tour by the band The Agency. It was recorded in Leetown, West Virginia, and copyrighted in 1993. Periodical cicadas are known as “17-Year Locusts” in the U.S., which is where this band got the name for the album. My guess is the album title was inspired by the Brood XIV emergence of 1991.
I haven’t yet listened to the album from start to finish but it falls into the hard rock genre.
The artwork is very nice and was done by bassist and singer Paul Sager using Corel Draw. I used Corel Draw to create the first Cicada Mania logo.
You might ask, what do cicadas symbolize? What are cicadas a metaphor for?
Cicadas, for many people, represent personal change, renewal, rebirth, and transformation.
Unlike a butterfly, moth, or other insects that undergo complete metamorphosis, cicadas have no pupal state. They transform from one fully-functioning state (instar) to another — one viable form, in a small amount of time, changing to another. The cicada’s transformation is like that of human beings. If a person wants or needs to make a change in their life, they do not enclose themselves in a pod and emerge next spring (I suppose some might) — more likely they remain in their human form as they change.
People use cicadas to symbolize their own personal transformation, in art, song, poetry, or even a tattoo. The cicada inherently symbolizes what they were — earth-bound, nymphs –and all the glory of what they have become — adults with wings & a song.
Cicadas can also be a symbol for a musician or singer since they sing.
Since cicadas sing mostly during the summer months, they are a symbol of summer and a precursor to the harvest.
Watch some cicada transformations:
An aside:
Although cicadas are bugs that are around in June, actual “June Bugs” are not cicadas. They are leaf-eating beetles belonging to the genus Phyllophaga.
Clustering Cicada circa 2025:
Looks like you can buy them at fireworks.us.
Clustering Cicada circa 2008:
The Fourth of July should be fun this year at Roy Troutman’s place. Check out the Clustering Cicada fireworks he found.
"Chirping Cicada" firework from Roy Troutman on Vimeo.
I made cicada Christmas lights using some LED USB Christmas lights, and some plastic cicada whistles from Australia. The song of cicadas heralds the Christmas season in many countries in the southern hemisphere like Australia.
CicadaMania Cicada Christmas Lights from Cicada Mania on Vimeo.
Here’s the whistles:
Bonus Christmas Cicada stuff:
AI Santa Cicada:
There is a cicada nicknamed the Kobonga Christmas Clanger in Australia (thx David Marshall and Kathy Hill ):
How about a cicada Christmas Wreath? This wreath was made by Jenny Pate back in 2004.
Or a Cicada Christmas Card from Sam Orr:
An illustration I made a few years ago:
Christmas Cards:
Christmas ornaments made with cicada skins?
If you use your imagination, you can see the shapes of letters on the wings of some cicadas.
There is an “urban legend” that W means there will be a War, and P means there will be Peace.
Aside from letters, some people say they see a lightning bolt! âš¡ï¸
The NCSU Libraries Rare and Unique Digital Collections website recently reminded the us of artist Eugene Alain (E.A.) Seguy’s insect illustrations. Seguy created these illustrations in the 1920’s, and as you might imagine, some of the cicada names cited in the notes for these illustrations have changed. Names typically change when cicadas are reclassified due to discoveries about their biology, or when we realize that someone else had actually named them earlier than the namer currently given credit.
Here are the two illustrations, the accompanying identification, and corrected identifications.
Illustration:
Accompanying identification:
1. Tacua speciosa. Indes; 2. Polyneura ducalis. Indes Or.; 3. Cicada saccata. Australie; 4. Cicada fascialis. Siam; 5. Tozena melanoptera. Indes Or.
Corrected or expanded identification:
Illustration:
Accompanying identification:
1. Goeana festiva. Indes; 2. Zammara tympanum. Amérique du Sud; 3. Goeana ochracea. Indes; 4. Phenax variegata. Brésil; 5. Hemisciera maculipennis. Amazone
Corrected or expanded identification:
There is a new cicada keychain toy from Japan. It comes in five colors, and produces its sound using a wind up mechanism. Buy it here.
Southern Prohibition Brewing is offering Cicada themed (but not flavored) beer this year. Just in time for Brood XXII.
Their site says cicadas are their favorite “invasive species”, but cicadas are not an invasive species, however it can feel like an invasion when periodical cicadas arrive.
BTW, here’s the first news article about Brood XXII I’ve found. It’s from the LSU AgCenter and features Christopher Carlton, LSU AgCenter entomologist and director of the Louisiana State Arthropod Museum.
No signs of Brood XXII cicadas on social media yet.
