Dedicated to cicadas, the most amazing insects in the world.
Update: Gerry Bunker nailed it: it’s a Neotibicen superbus. Notice that the “McDonald’s Arch” is separated.
Here’s a challenge for all you cicada maniacs: identify this cicada! Even I don’t know what it is. Place your guesses in the Comments (see link below).
The photo was taken by Elise Solloway in Oklahoma in August of this year.
These are photos from 2005. Neotibicen tibicen tibicen aka Swamp or Morning Cicada. Back in 2005 we called them Tibicen chloromera.
NEW! Gerry Bunker’s Tibicen Gallery: Photos from Gerry who runs the Massachusetts Cicadas web site.
NEW! Elise Solloway’s Tibicen Gallery: Photos taken southwest of Woodward, Oklahoma, the first week in July 2005
Photo by Elise:
NEW! Sloan Childers’s Tibicen Gallery: Photo taken in Round Rock Texas.
NEW! Natasha’s Okanagana rimosa Gallery: Okanagana rimosa, taken in Edmonton, Alberta.
There are many nicknames for cicadas. Periodic cicadas (17-year/13-year Magicicadas) are often called Locusts. Annual, summertime cicadas (primarily Tibicens) are called Jar Fly or Jarfly, Harvest Fly or “Dog Day” cicada depending on what part of the USA you’re from.
I found this site which provides guesses at the entomology of Jar Fly:
One is that when you catch one and hold it in your hand it “jars” or vibrates. The other thought is that the nickname came from the constant singing that might “jar” or unsettle some people’s nerves who are not accustomed to hearing it for hours on end.
My uneducated guess would be that kids catch them and put them in jars, hence “jar fly”.
Thanks to Becky for asking about Jarflies.
Here’s a nice photo of a Neotibicen cicada infected with Massospora fungi. Yuck! Thanks to Matt for the photo.
