Cicada Mania

Dedicated to cicadas, the most amazing insects in the world.

October 10, 2013

Masked Devil aka Cyclochila australasiae

Filed under: Australia | Cyclochila — Dan @ 4:37 am

Lozang Y. posted this image of a Masked Devil aka Cyclochila australasiae on our Facebook page. The photo was taken in the Blue Mountains, NSW, Australia.

Masked Devil

These cicadas are currently out and singing in the New South Wales area.

The green form of this cicada is called a Green Grocer, the yellow form is called a Yellow Monday, and the Blue Form is called the Blue Moon. The Cyclochila australasiae might have more color variations than even the Gaeana festiva of Southeast Asia.

More info about Cyclochila australasiae from L.W. Popple’s website.

October 6, 2013

Cicada Papers and Documents, PDFs and Images

Filed under: Papers and Documents | Websites — Dan @ 1:41 am

Visit Tim McNary’s Bibliography of the Cicadoidea for many, many more cicada papers and articles.

Biogeography of the Cicadas (Hemiptera: Cicadidae) of North America, North of Mexico

Author: Allen F. Sanborn 1, and Polly K. Phillips (2013)

North American Cicadas. Features maps. “Abstract: We describe and illustrate the biogeography of the cicadas inhabiting continental North America, north of Mexico. Species distributions were determined through our collecting efforts as well as label data from more than 110 institutional collections.”

File located on cicadamania.com.

North American cicadas (1921)

Author: Davis, William T. (William Thompson), 1862-1945; New York Entomological Society. Journal

North American Cicadas

File located on archive.org.

A monograph of oriental cicadidae (1892)

Author: Distant, William Lucas, 1845-1922

Cicadas of India, Southeast Asia and China

File located on archive.org.

Centre for Entomological Studies Ankara, Cesa News Nr. 55 (January 30, 2010)

Cicadidae of Turkey and some ecological notes on Tibicina serhadensis Kocak & Kemal from Van Province (East Turkey) (Homoptera) — Author: Muhabbet Kemal, Ahmet Omer Kocak, Vildan Bozaci

Cicadas of Turkey

File located on archive.org.

The Periodical Cicada (1907)

Author: C. L. Marlatt

Magicicada periodical cicadas

File located on archive.org.

The periodical cicada in 1914 (1914)

Author: United States. Bureau of Entomology; Marlatt, C. L

Magicicada periodical cicadas

File located on archive.org.

Les Cicadines d’Europe : d’après les originaux et les plus récentes (1875)

Fieber, Franz Xaver, 1807-1872; Metcalf Collection (North Carolina State University). NCRS

Cicadas of Europe

File located on archive.org.

Insecta. Rhynchota. Hemiptera-Homoptera. Volume I (1881-1905)

W. L. Distant and W. W. Fowler

Cicadas of Central and South America

File located on www.sil.si.edu.

Emergence of Prime Numbers as the Result of Evolutionary Strategy (PDF)

Prof. Douglas Galvao of the State University of Campinas

Magicicada periodical cicadas

File located on cicadamania.com.

Genera of American cicadas north of Mexico (1978)

Author: Heath, Maxine Shoemaker

Genera of American cicadas north of Mexico. Note a more recent book (scroll up) has been published in 2013.

File located on archive.org.

Dictionnaire universel d’histoire naturelle: atlas (1861)

Author: Orbigny, Charles Dessalines d’, 1806-1876; Metcalf Collection (North Carolina State University). NCRS

Contains a few cicada illustrations including a Tacua sp.

File located on archive.org.

October 3, 2013

Tibicen Cicada Tattoo

Filed under: Tattoos — Dan @ 1:13 pm

Amy Shaw shared a photo of her new photo-realistic cicada tattoo.

Cicada Tattoo

The tattoo artist is Dan Henk.

September 30, 2013

Cicadas of Thailand Volume 2: Taxonomy and Sonic Ethology by Michel Boulard

Filed under: Books | Michel Boulard | Thailand — Dan @ 7:07 am

Cicadas of Thailand Volume 2: Taxonomy and Sonic Ethology by Michel Boulard is available now via Siri Scientific Press.

Cicadas of Thailand 2

A comprehensive 436 page volume from the leading world expert representing 13 years of work on taxonomy (including several newly described species) and sonic ethology, with supporting audio tracks

I ordered a copy already.

Cicadas of Thailand Volume 1 was a great resource for the cicadas of Thailand and South-East Asia in general (many Asian species are not endemic, so you’ll find them in many countries). I imagine that Volume 2 will be just as amazing.

Here’s his first book Cicadas of Thailand: General and Particular Characteristics. Volume 1:

The Cicadas of Thailand by Michel Boulard

September 22, 2013

Cicada Season has begun in Australia

Filed under: Australia | Cyclochila | Cystosoma | David Emery | Pauropsalta — Dan @ 8:40 pm

David Emery wrote to let us know that cicada season has begun in parts of Australia:

After some 50mm of rain on 16-17 Sept and the warmest winter on record on the east coast, the “masked devil” morphs of Cyclochila australasiae were in good voice in the mountains west and south of Sydney, Australia on 22nd Sept. The bladder cicadas (Cystosoma saundersii) are also rattling in Metro Sydney. These are about 2 weeks early this year as are several of the smaller grass cicadas and Pauropsalta species. Roll on summer!

Cheers, David.

Masked Devil cicada (Cyclochila australasiae):
Masked Devil cicada (Cyclochila australasiae)

More information about Cyclochila australasiae.

Bladder cicadas (Cystosoma saundersii):
Bladder cicadas (Cystosoma saundersii)

More information about Cystosoma saundersii.

Bottle Cicada (Chlorocysta sp.):
Bottle Cicada

More information about Bottle cicadas.

September 6, 2013

Latest Comments on Cicada Mania

Filed under: Mail, Comments & Social — Dan @ 2:59 am

Want to know the latest comments happening on Cicada Mania?

The 10 Latest Comments from the Website


Message Board Archives

The message board Archives can be useful for researching Broods that emerged in the late 90s and 00s.

Visit the message board archvies and scroll through 1000’s of cicada questions and sightings.

August 9, 2013

August is a great time to look for Tibicen cicadas in North America

Filed under: Canada | Tibicen | United States | Video — Tags: — Dan @ 9:33 am

Now is a great time to look and listen for Tibicen cicadas in North America. Tibicen are the medium to large sized annual cicadas. Typically they are well camouflaged – with colors like black, white, green & brown.

During the day you can listen for them, of course, and spot them that way. Try Insect Singers for cicada songs. You can also look for their exuvia (skins), and if you’re lucky you can catch on on a low branch.

Last night I started looking around 10pm and found three Swamp Cicadas (T. tibicen tibicen) shedding their skins on trees around the yard. I also collected about 30 exuvia (skins). All in a quarter acre yard. Take a look at this video:

Swamp Cicada shedding its nymphal skin from Cicada Mania on Vimeo.

Swamp Cicada

Teneral Swamp Cicada

July 30, 2013

Megatibicen auletes in Manchester, NJ

Filed under: Elias Bonaros | Megatibicen | Tibicen | Video — Tags: , — Dan @ 8:44 pm

Last night I went on an exploration of Manchester, NJ looking for Megatibicen auletes (Germar, 1834) with Elias Bonaros and his friend Annette.

M. auletes, are known as the Northern Dusk Singing Cicada. As their name suggests, M. auletes calls at dusk, around sunset. Their call is amazing – visit Insect Singers to hear their call.

Luckily I found a (deceased) female and an exuvia (nymph skin). Elias and Annette found many exuvia and a live nymph. We were able to watch the nymph undergo ecdysis (leave its exuvia, and expand its adult body).

Here are some images of the cicadas we found last night (click the first two images to get to larger versions):

Neotibicen auletes nymph

Ventral view. Neotibicen auletes female Manchester NJ

Dorsal view. Neotibicen auletes female Manchester NJ

Neotibicen auletes female Manchester NJ

Some (blurry) video:

Dan and Elias netting a M. auletes exuvia. Photo by Annette DeGiovine-Oliveira:

Dan and Elias netting a T. auletes exuvia. Photo by Annette DeGiovine-Oliveira:

July 24, 2013

Cicada Summer Fun

Filed under: News — Dan @ 5:06 am

It has been about a month since the last time I saw a Brood II periodical cicada. The Brood II emergence is over, aside from flagging and nymph hatches. That doesn’t mean the cicada fun has to end. Annual species of cicadas are out in the Northern hemisphere. Depending on where you live, you should be able to hear, and if you’re lucky, see annual cicadas.

Tibicen, particularly Tibicen tibicen, the Swamp Cicada, are out in the eastern U.S.

Here’s a cell phone photo of a Tibicen exvuvia (from Middletown, NJ) and a male Tibicen tibicen (found by my sister in Edison, NJ):

Tibicen exuvia

Male Tibicen tibicen

Other species are out as well…

Here’s a Tweet and YouTube video featuring a Diceroprocta apache from Arizona:

Summertime cicadas aren’t limited to North America of course. Here is a video of A rock musician’s folk remedy to make cicadas stop singing in Greece:

If you’re on Twitter, follow @Zi_kade for photos of cicadas from Japan. That is the twitter feed by the guy behind the best website for info about the cicadas of Japan: Cicadae in Japan.

You can also follow @cicadamania, which is the feed for this site.

July 16, 2013

Help identify these cicadas from India

Filed under: Identify | India | Macrosemia | Raghu Ananth — Dan @ 5:46 am

Raghu Ananth sent us these photos of cicadas from India. If you can identify them, let use know.

UPDATE: David Emery provided use with these ID’s, in Order from Top to Bottom:

Macrosemia umbrata. Platypleura capitata, Platypleura sp and Pomponia linearis.
Macrosemia umbrata Cicada Found in Arunachal Pradesh, India by Raghu Ananth

Click the images for a larger version:

Cicada Found Near Mysore, India: Platypleura capitata
Platypleura capitata by Raghu Ananth, taken near Mysore, India:

Cicada Found in Kukke Subramanya: Platypleura sp

Cicada Found in Kukke Subramanya, Karnataka, India by Raghu Ananth

Cicada Found in Bhagamandala, Coorg, India: Pomponia linearis

Pomponia linearis Cicada Found in Bhagamandala, Coorg, India by Raghu Ananth

Cicada Found in Arunachal Pradesh_ India by Raghu Ananth
Cicada Found in Arunachal Pradesh_ India by Raghu Ananth 2

« Newer PostsMore »

Cicada T-shirts