Categories
Anatomy Audio, Sounds, Songs

Do cicadas sing at night?

A few people have asked me if cicadas sing at night. The truth is, in most cases, they do not. Most of the time when you hear an insect at night it is a cricket or katydid. However, there are a few cases when cicadas will sing at night:

  • In the presence of artificial light sources, like streetlights & floodlights, or a full moon. I turned on a flood light tonight to test this and it worked: a cicada started to sing.
  • When it’s extraordinarily hot.
  • If the cicada is disturbed or attacked.
  • If they’re overcrowded

Thanks to John Cooley for most of this information.

Categories
Magicicada Periodical

Emergence of Prime Numbers as the Result of Evolutionary Strategy

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

Categories
Anatomy Massospora Matt Berger Neotibicen

Tibicen fungi blues

Tibicen fungi.

Here’s a nice photo of a Neotibicen cicada infected with Massospora fungi. Yuck! Thanks to Matt for the photo.

Categories
Eating Cicadas

Cicada Pie Recipe

These sort of things disgust me, but I’m posting it anyway.

Four cups of chopped rhubarb, 1 cup of fresh cicadas, washed and any hard parts removed; 1&1/3 cups white sugar, 6 tablespoons all-purpose flour, 1tablespoon butter, and a 9-inch double crust pie crust.

You’ll find the rest of the recipe in this article from the Arizona Republic: Answering bug query is easy as pie.

Categories
Neotibicen Roy Troutman

Summer Time cicadas

Cicada photo by Roy Troutman

More Tibicen photos from Roy Troutman.

Categories
Magicicada Matt Berger Periodical Stragglers

Straggler pictures from Matt

Matt Berger ent us some straggler pictures taken earlier this year:

Matt 2005 Straggler.

Matt 2005 Straggler.

Categories
Eating Cicadas Magicicada

Jake is Cicada Maniac

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.

Categories
Brood XI John Cooley Magicicada Periodical Stragglers

$50 Reward for Cicadas

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.

Cooley Reward.

Categories
Gerry Bunker Magicicada Periodical Stragglers

Brood X Straggling in Hedgesville WV

Gerry's Cicada. Gerry's Cicada.

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:

Massachusetts Cicadas.

Categories
Magicicada Periodical Stragglers

Straggler Cicadas in Yellow Springs, Ohio

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).