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Brood XIV

Brood XIV Event on Thursday, April 24 in Massechusettes

Brood XIV Event on Thursday, April 24 in Massachusetts:

School vacation program “Year of the Cicadas,” David Simser, 2 p.m., Cape Cod Museum of Natural History, Route 6A, Brewster, free.

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Dundubia Santisuk Vibul Thailand

Tymbals of the cicada of Genus Dundubia, Bangkok, Thailand

Santisuk Vibul sent us new photos of the tymbals of the cicada of Genus Dundubia, from Bangkok, Thailand.

Here’s a sample:

Tymbals of the cicada of Genus Dundubia by Santisuk Vibul. Thailand. 2008.

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Brood XIV Gene Kritsky Magicicada Roy Troutman

2008 Cicada Temperature Study

Roy Troutman sent me these photos of temperature loggers that allow cicada experts, like Gene Kritsky, to measure the ground soil temperature, and improve their formulas for predicting Magicicada emergences.

We [Gene Kristsky and Roy Troutman] buried 3 temperature probes & tied one on a tree branch for air readings. The temperature loggers will take a very accurate reading every 10 minutes & after the emergence has started in full swing Gene will dig them up & hook them to a usb cable & download all the data to his laptop for study. He [Gene] is trying to determine the exact temperature that they will emerge so he can fine tune his formula for calculating emergence times.

Last year Gene’s emergence formula calculator (try it!) did a good job of predicting the Brood XIII emergence, and the 2008 temperature study should only improve it.

You might be able to participate in the 2008 cicada temperature study. If you’re interested, contact Gene Kritsky.

Temperature Logger

Temperature Logger

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Magicicada

New cicada site

John Cooley, one of the folks behind the Michigan Cicadas cicada site and the Cicada Central site now has a third site, which promises to have the best and most up to date Magicicada information. The new site is magicicada.org.

This site is designed to serve several purposes for 2008:

  • It is a place where we are directing people to report cicada emergences, so that the records may be collected and geocoded.
  • It’s got the best set of brood maps yet.
  • It mirrors the information on Cicada Central.
  • It will have better photos (the species photos for M. tredecim are second generation, but I’m working on even better ones).
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Brood XIV

Brood XIV: When, Where and What do they look like?

This is the first of several Brood XIV Magicicada posts to help you enjoy this year’s cicada mania experience:

When will they appear?

Nymphs

In April people will start to find cicada nymphs close to the surface of the ground, under stones, while landscaping, etc. This is what a nymph looks like:

Nymph and Adult

If you find a nymph in the soil, leave it alone so it will have the opportunity to become an adult.

Adults

Adults will emerge once the temperature is right, typically at dusk. The best method we know of is using Gene Kritsky’s emergence formula. This is a tool that will allow you to determine the approximate time when the cicadas will emerge in your area.

Generally speaking, Magiciadas will begin emerging in the last 2 weeks of May, and the last adults should have passed by the first week of July.

Where will they appear?

States:

In 2008 they’re set to appear in eastern Massachusetts, Long Island New York, south-western New Jersey, south-eastern Pennsylvania, south-eastern and north-western West Virgina, southern Ohio, most of Kentucky, eastern Tennessee, western North Carolina, southern Indiana, and bits of Virgina.

Maps:

The great Cicada Central site has a map of Brood XIV emergence locations.

Gene Kritsky’s site has a map as well.

and this is the Cicada Mania map, made by Roy.

Do some research:

Okay! So now you know where the Magicicada might appear, but how will you know if these cicada will appear in your yard, neighborhood or local woods? Time for some investigation:

  1. Ask people who were around 17 years ago. Old timers, townies, local press — anyone how was around 17 years ago.
  2. Go to the library and check old news papers.
  3. Contact local colleges and universities. Try the entomology department or agricultural extensions.
  4. Encourage the local press to cover the cicadas, and let them do the research. The local press have the most resources to do this research.

Note that old timers call Magicicadas “locusts“; Magicicadas are not true locusts, but the term might help jar people’s memories. Magicicadas can also be called periodical cicadas, as well as 17-year cicadas. Don’t forget to use those terms while asking around

What do they look like?

You already saw what the nymph form looks like, but what does an adult look like? They look like this:

Magicicada

Black heads and and upper bodies, black and orange bellies (belly is not a scientific term), reddish-orange eyes, orange legs and wings. Yes, sometimes the eyes can be brown, yellow, orange and even white or blue!

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Costa Rica Jose Mora

New Gallery from Jose Mora of Costa Rican Cicadas

We have a new set of galleries of Costa Rican cicadas courtesy of Jose Mora. Jose wrote:

Greetings from COSTA RICA!!!!!
Hello my friend, i really like your website please keep going!!, these fantastic insects have a very unusual and fascinating life.

I’m from Costa Rica, the name of the province where I live is HEREDIA and right now we’re in “cicada season” jajajaja .

Maybe you have heard about this already, the popular name for the cicadas here and probably all the rest of hispanoamerica is “CHICHARRA”…. well i would like to share with you some pictures i took around 3 days ago in a little park near my house, hope you’ll like it!!

Here are gallery 1, gallery 2 and gallery 3.

Here’s a sample:

Costa Rican Cicada

Costa Rican Cicada

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Adam Fleishman Neotibicen Tacuini (Cryptotympanini)

New Cicada Photos from Adam Fleishman / ID this cicada

Here’s some new photos from photographer and cicada enthusiast Adam Fleishman. As always, they’re great photos. If you can help ID the first two photos, we’d appreciate it.

Neotibicen dealbatus:

Tibicen

Neotibicen dealbatus:

Tibicen

Neotibicen dorsatus (formerly T.dorsata):

T. dorsatus (formerly T.dorsata)

T. dorsata

Neotibicen superbus (formerly T. superba)

T. superba

Visit Adam’s website Cometmoth Sight and Sound

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Brood XIV

Brood XIV will be here soon enough

Today is March 1st, and in a couple of months the Brood XIV cicadas will be here. I’ll work up a comprehensive article in the coming weeks. Historically speaking, Brood XIV has emerged in Long Island, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, West Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina and Virginia. Some of Brood XIV pre-emerged in 2007, ands pictures of that on the site.

The first sign of an emergence is usually news articles. Here’s one of the first:

And here’s and NPR Story about eating bugs including cicadas.

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Anatomy

Ever wonder how cicadas make that sound?

Ever wonder how cicadas make the sound they make? Look no further than this article: What the buzz was all about: superfast song muscles rattle the tymbals of male periodical cicadas. You’ll final many paragraphs of information, but most importantly, macro photos, illustrations and even 3D models of working cicada muscles and membranes.

Thanks to Roy Troutman for this find.

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Argentina Brazil Carineta Carinetini

Pretty Brazilian Cicada: the Carineta diardi

Pia Öberg from Sweden took this cicada photo back in 2004 at Hotel do Ypê in Itatiaia NP in Brazil. Thanks to Roy Troutman and cicada expert Allen Sanborn we were able to ID this pretty cicada as a Carineta diardi (Guérin-Méneville, 1829). In addition to Brazil, C. diardi is also found in Argentina.

Carineta diardi

Scientific classification:
Family: Cicadidae
Subfamily: Cicadettinae
Tribe: Carinetini
SubTribe: Carinetiina
Genus: Carineta
Species: Carineta diardi (Guérin-Méneville, 1829)

Some more links for you:

More of Pia’s photos on Flickr.

What a fun way to start the New Year. Happy New Year cicada maniacs!