Categories
Magicicada Periodical

Understanding Broods Using Analogies

Next year (2013) Brood II periodical cicadas will emerge along the eastern coast of North America (see our brood chart for where). You might find yourself wondering, “what is a brood“.

Here is a explanation of broods from Cicadas @ UCONN (formerly Magicicada.org):

All periodical cicadas of the same life cycle type that emerge in a given year are known collectively as a single “brood” (or “year-class”). The resulting broods are designated by Roman numerals — there are 12 broods of 17-year cicadas (with the remaining five year-classes apparently containing no cicadas), and 3 broods of 13-year cicadas (with ten empty year-classes).

The concept of periodical cicada broods can be difficult to wrap your mind around, so I wanted to present some analogies to help folks understand what a brood is. Generally speaking, it is important to not anthropomorphize insects, but if it helps you understand what a brood is, we can let it slide…

The Family Reunion analogy

Imagine that each brood is a family, and that each family has a family reunion every 17 years. They also, always, celebrate in the same location.

The next Brood II “family reunion” happens in 2013; their last reunion happened in 1996; and their next reunion will happen in 2030. They always have their reunion in CT, MD, NC, NJ, NY, PA and VA — its their favorite restaurant.

The High School Reunion analogy

Imagine that each brood is a high school class, and that class has a reunion every 17 years. They also, always, celebrate in the same location.

The next Brood III “high school reunion” happens in 2014; their last reunion happened in 1997; and their next reunion will happen in 2031. They always have their reunion in IA, IL and MO — their favorite hometown pub.

The Wedding Anniversary analogy

Imagine that a brood is a married couple, and they celebrate their wedding anniversary every 17 years. (Caution: if you’re a human don’t try celebrating your wedding anniversary only every 17 years – you won’t have a happy marriage).

The next time couple Brood IV celebrates their anniversary is 2015; the last time they celebrated their wedding anniversary was 1998; they next time they will celebrate their wedding anniversary will be 2032. They always celebrate in IA, KS, MO, NE, OK and TX — the restaurant where they first met.

Stragglers

Stragglers are periodical cicadas that emerge in years prior to, or after they are expected to emerge — typically 4 years earlier. This male Magicicada should have emerged in 2013, but instead he emerged in 2009 – four years earlier than expected.

We can extend these analogies to cover straggling.

If a periodical cicada shows up four years early to his family or high school reunion, he is not going to have much fun, because few, if any other periodical cicadas will be around to celebrate with. If Mr. Magicicada shows up early or late for a wedding anniversary, he is definitely not going to have any fun.

I think the High School Reunion works best.

Feel free to submit any other analogies in the comments…

Categories
Brood I Magicicada Periodical

2012 Brood I Wrap-Up

Brood I, a brood of 17-year Magicicada periodical cicadas, emerged in the spring of 2012 in western Virginia, a small part of eastern West Virginia, and (expected by some, unexpected by others) in the Tri-Cities area of Tennessee.

The emergence in Tennessee caught some (myself included) by surprise, because it is not on Brood I maps, but folks in the Tri-Cities area say they expected it. Brood I is known as the Blue Ridge Brood because it exists along the Blue Ridge Mountains. The Tri-Cities area of Tennessee falls within the Blue Ridge Mountains, so the nickname of the brood works for Tennessee as well. I’m sure that there will be debate as to whether the Tri-Cities cicadas belong in Brood 1; we’ll know for sure in 2029.

Brood I emerged earlier than expected due to unseasonably warm weather in Virginia. On April 23rd, Barbara Dekorsey reported the following on the Cicada Mania Facebook page: “My kids and I saw periodical cicadas emerging on Blue Ridge Parkway MP 114.9, at the Roanoke River Trailhead (Roanoke, VA). It was wet and cool, and many of them were dead or dying with poorly formed wings.” Unfortunately, the moment when many cicadas began to emerge, the weather switched, greeting cicadas with wet, windy, cold weather, which resulted in cicada deaths and deformities due to harsh weather. Plenty of cicadas emerged unscathed, though, so the brood will live on.

Brood I is a small, but interesting Brood.

More information:

Categories
Cicadetta England

The New Forest Cicada Project

I mentioned the New Forest Cicada a few weeks ago. It is the only cicada native to the United Kingdom, but no one has observed it since 2000, so it might be extinct. I hope it is not extinct.

Now there is a team of researchers called The New Forest Cicada Project who plan to use a smartphone app, for your Android or iOS device, to listen for and identify the cicada.

Do you live in England? Are you in the area of the New Forest National Park? If so, make sure you download the app when it’s ready and then next May-July, go listening for the New Forest cicada.

This story was also mentioned in a Guardian UK article.

Categories
Cicadetta England

New Forest cicada (Cicadetta montana)

There is only one type of cicada in the United Kingdom, and it is called the New Forest cicada (Cicadetta montana). It is named for the New Forest National Park, where these cicadas can be found in the pasture woodlands. It is both rare and endangered, according to this FAQ, however, according to another website, it might be extinct. It sounds like a small gas motor (in my opinion).

The website ARKive has Five videos of the New Forest cicada, including one featuring cicada larvae still in a tree branch.

Cicadas belonging to the Genus Cicadetta are known as “small grass cicadas”. The New Forest cicada belongs to the same subfamily (Subfamily Cicadettinae) as the Magicicada periodical cicadas that live in the U.S.A.

Categories
Cicada Mania Pop Culture

Cicada Mania News

Saturday the BBC stopped by Cicada Mania headquarters to interview me for a Periodical Cicada episode of their show Nature’s Weirdest. The episode will also feature Dr. Gene Kristsky, and other cicada experts. The show will air in January, and hopefully end up on NetFlix, BBC America or YouTube sometime after that. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b019f6kv Here’s a photo of the amazing crew that interviewed me:

BBC film crew

Also, my friends David and Claire gave me this very nice cicada whistle from Peru:

Cicada Whistle

Categories
Annual Neotibicen Tibicen Video

A Neotibicen tibicen (chloromera) singing

The trees near where I work are chocked full of Tibicen tibicen cicadas (formerly known as T. chloromera, also known as Swamp cicadas).

Here is a short video featuring the call of a Tibicen tibicen that I recorded this morning:

Here’s a sound file of the cicada’s song…

Categories
Annual Neotibicen

Neotibicen canicularis – Dog Star Rising

Mid-August is approaching, and the “Dog Days” of summer are almost here. Sirius (the Dog Star) and the constellation Canis Major will soon begin to appear in the early morning sky. Now is also the time that Tibicen canicularis, the Dog Day Day cicada, is also making its presence known in the U.S.A.

Edit: Dog-day cicadas (Neotibicen) are named for the time of year when the Dog-start Sirius first appears in the sky. Depending on where you are in the U.S., latitudinally speaking, Sirius should enter the pre-dawn sky between July 29th (Key West, FL) and August 15th (Bangor Maine) give or take a day.

This is a photo of a N. canicularis (Dog Day cicada) next to a T. davisi (Southern Dog Day cicada) by by Paul Krombholz:
Neotibicen davisi & canicularis by Paul Krombholz

N. canicularis has a green pronotal collar, green markings on its pronotum, and at least some, if not all, orange colors on its mesonotum (where the M is on the cicada’s back). N. canicularis sounds like (to me at least) a circular saw buzzing through a plank in wood in a neighbor’s garage.

Imagine that you are a farmer waking just before dawn and seeing the first signs of Sirius, the Dog Star, and then later in the day, hearing N. canicularis singing away in the trees surrounding your fields. Those two signs signal that summer is reaching its peak, and harvest will start soon enough.

N. canicularis can be found in the following states and provinces: AR, CT, DC, IL, IN, IA, KS, ME, MB, MD, MA, MI, MN, MO, NE, NB, NH, NJ, NY, NC, ND, NS, OH, ON, PA, PE, QC, RI, SC, SD, TN, VT, VA, WV, WI.

Here is a screen capture of the computer app Stellarium, with Canis Major and Sirius rising above the horizon before dawn.

Sirius rising

If you’re interested in stars, check out Stellarium. It is free.

Visit the Songs of Insects site for a nice photo and sound file of the Dog Day cicada. Also by their book Songs of Insects – it is inexpensive and comes with a CD.

Categories
Cicada Killer Wasps Video

Cicada Killer Wasps Are Busy Killing Cicadas

If you’re in North America in mid to late summer, you might notice an abundance of large black and yellow wasps flying around your yard or local park. If you’re lucky enough, you’ll spot one of these wasps with a chubby green, black & white Tibicen cicada in its grasp.

Cicada Killer Wasp on Elias' Finger

These wasps are appropriately named Cicada Killer Wasps. There are many species of Cicada Killer Wasps, but the most well known is the Eastern Cicada Killer Wasp (Sphecius speciosus). These wasps paralyze and bring the cicadas to their burrow, where the cicada is used as food for a Cicada Killer Wasp larvae. The best Cicada Killer Wasp resource on the web is Prof. Chuck Holliday’s Biology of cicada killer wasps. If you’re interested in these wasps, visit Prof. Holiday’s site now.

People fear these wasps because they are large and we tend to fear stinging insects, but truthfully these wasps are not interested in stinging people — they are interested in stinging cicadas. Unlike more aggressive species of stinging insects, Cicada Killer Wasps will probably only sting you if you step on, harass or otherwise physically contact the creature. If you don’t want to be stung, don’t harass the wasps. Not need to panic. No need to bomb your local environment with pesticides.

Take a look at this stunning picture of a Cicada Killer Wasp holding a cicada while perched on Elias Bonaros’ finger. Neither Elias or the wasp was harmed. The cicada was harmed and likely eaten by a wasp larva.

Update:

Elias recorded this footage of a Cicada Killer “mating ball”. If you weren’t terrified by the image of the Cicada Killer clutching the Tibicen on Elias’ finger wasn’t scary enough, check this out:

Another video of a Cicada Killer Wasp

Cicada Killer from Cicada Mania on Vimeo.

Categories
Annual Canada

Cicadas of Canada

Someone recently asked which cicadas live in the Toronto area in Canada. Here are links to three such cicadas:

Okanagana canadensis (Canadian cicada)
http://bugguide.net/node/view/202488
http://www.musicofnature.org/songsofinsects/iframes/cicadas/popup_okancana.html

Okanagana rimosa (Say’s cicada)
http://bugguide.net/node/view/41209
http://www.musicofnature.org/songsofinsects/iframes/cicadas/popup_okanrimo.html

Tibicen canicularis (Dog-day cicada)
http://bugguide.net/node/view/12461
http://www.musicofnature.org/songsofinsects/iframes/cicadas/popup_tibicann.html

Categories
Cacama Neocicada Neotibicen Okanagana Platypedia

Various cicada species emerging in the United States

Brood I Magicicada periodical cicadas continue to emerge in VA, WA and TN. Magicicada stragglers belonging to other broods, continue to emerge as well.

Neocicada hieroglyphica are around as well, particularly in Florida [link goes to image].

Neocicada hieroglyphica by Joe Green, 2007
Neocicada hieroglyphica by Joe Green, 2007.

Cicadas belonging to the genus Cacama (Cactus Dodgers), including the Cacama valvata are emerging in south-western states like New Mexico and Arizona [link goes to image].

Cacama valvata cicada photos by Adam Fleishman
Cacama valvata cicada photos by Adam Fleishman

Cicadas belonging to the genus Tibicen are emerging in warmer areas of the United States. Joe Green found a Tibicen tibicen (possibly Tibicen tibicen australis [see Insect Singers site for song and description]) in Florida. Tibicen superbus [image] are emerging in Southern states as well.

Neotibicen superbus from Texas photo by Roy Troutman
Neotibicen superbus from Texas photo by Roy Troutman.

Cicadas belonging to the genus Platypedia are emerging in Califorina [link goes to image]. See also Hello, my tree is clicking.

Cicadas belonging to the genus Okanagana are emerging in California [link goes to image].