Dedicated to cicadas, the most amazing insects in the world.
Director Rohit Colin Rao is getting set to release his documentary Brood X: Year of the Cicada. The documentary focuses on the Brood X emergence of last year. The trailer looks awesome.
Speaking of Brood X, I found a home movie from 2004 on the Internet Archive: Cicadas in Cincinnati, May 2004.
Professor Douglas Galvao of the State University of Campinas has written a paper titled Emergence of Prime Numbers as the Result of Evolutionary Strategy. He is hoping to get feedback from the scientific / cicada community.
We investigate by means of a simple theoretical model the emergence of prime numbers as life cycles, as those seen for some species of cicadas.
You can download a PDF version of the paper. Windows users will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view it, and Mac users can simply use Preview.
You can contact Prof. Douglas Galvao, as well:
Prof. D.S. Galvao
Head of Applied Physics Department
State University of Campinas
Campinas – Sao Paulo – BRAZIL
Matt Berger ent us some straggler pictures taken earlier this year:
From this article in the Shippensberg Sentinel:
Jake Crider takes a bite of a chocolate-covered cicadas. He has kept a container of pre-cooked, frozen periodical cicadas that he harvested last year.
Hey folks, I just got this message from John Cooley, a cicada researcher:
Have I got a deal for you……..see the attached. We’re hoping to
mobilize the cicada fan club to see whether our local brood really
has gone extinct (I think it has- no sightings at last known patch in
1971, 1988, or 2005).There’s more info about this on Cicada Central— I’ll also consider
some sort of a reward for significant collections of live M.
septendecim stragglers from the eastern part of Brood X, and I’ll
grant the full reward for XI specimens in the CT river valley of MA
and CT, as well as anywhere in RI.— John Cooley
home page: http://hydrodictyon.eeb.uconn.edu/people/jcooley/
So, if you find a Magicicada in those areas, and have proof, please contact John.
Gerry Bunker sent us these pictures of a straggler from Hedgesville, WV, which he found on June 1st.
Visit Gerry’s excellent cicada web sites for more information:
Greg Spahr reports from John Bryan State Park in Yellow Springs, Ohio:
I was out birdwatching yesterday and was shocked and surprised to hear a few Magicicada Cassini calling. I didn’t know about the stragglers until I got on the web and found the reports on your site. In any case, I could hear about 10 individuals calling at John Bryan State Park in Yellow Springs, Ohio yesterday (June 5th).
From 5 Channel Cinncinati:
Pesky Cicadas Are Back
1,000 Stragglers Could Pop Up This SummerCINCINNATI — Tri-staters thought they saw the last of the cicadas for a few years, but a local woman is saying they’re back.
Target 5’s Michelle Hopkins checked into the situation and found proof — a dead cicada that lived about three days in Springfield Township.
Matt Berger sent us this excellent photo of male and female cassini stragglers, found in Loveland, Ohio.
It is possible that Brood XI is not extinct. Brood XI hasn’t been recorded since in 1950’s, however, David Marshall of the University of Connecticut “would not be surprised if there are small patches of them that have been missed since much of southern New England is not that densely inhabited”.
If you’re in the Connecticut, Massachusetts, or Rhode Island area this spring and you hear or see a Magicicada, please let us know.
