Categories
Folklore

An old news story about Prizes for Locusts or Cicadas

Once again I was grinding through the Library of Congress website, and I came across another Cicada story. This story, from the July 21, 1921 edition of the Okolona (Mississippi) Messenger, is a request from the entomologist of the “Agricultural, College, Mississippi” (Agricultural College in Mississippi) for cicadas. Send cicadas to the college and get a prize. Sounds awesome.

The terms cicadas and locusts seem to be used interchangeably, which is common for these old newspaper articles. If you read “locusts” they mean cicadas, in this article at least.

Note that this is from 1921. Don’t send them cicadas today.

Prizes for Locusts or Cicadas

To receive the prizes offer the cicadas or locust must be collected in Mississippi during 1921. They must be mailed to the Entomologist, Agricultural, College, Mississippi, with the name and address of the collector written on the package and a letter must state where and when the locusts were collected. Always give the county.

Prizes for each county 1. For the cicadas from each country in Mississippi 20 cents each for the first ten specimens; 10 cents each for the next 20 specimens; and 5 cents each for the next 40 specimens. We will try to award these prizes promptly upon receipt of the cicadas each day during the summer.

State Prizes; 2. For the largest number of cicadas send in by any one person during the year 1921 $5.00; for the second largest number $3.00; and for the third largest number $2.00. The locusts or cicada should be mailed in as soon as possible after they are collected. Careful record will be kept of all specimens and these prizes will be awarded next fall.

Special Prizes: 3. For a cicada that proves to be a new species, that is not previously know to entomologist, $5.00 for the first specimen; $3.00 for the second and $1.00 each for the next five specimens.

4. For any species of cicada not previously recorded from Mississippi $3.00 for the first specimen; $2.00 for the second, and $1.00 each for the next five specimens.

5. For specimens of the rare small green cicada Okanagana Niridis, $1.00 each for the first ten specimens. The species will most likely be collected in Bolivar, Sunflower, Washington and other Delta Counties during June and July, but may possibly be collected in the other sections of the state during other months.

Okanagana Niridis is actually Okanagana viridis. The meaning of viridis is the color green. Here is a photo.

6. For specimens of Tibicen Linnei $1.00 each for the first ten specimens. This species will most likely be collected in the northern part of the state.

Tibicen Linnei is now known as Neotibicen linnei.

7. For any Periodical Cicada, or 1-year locust collected in Mississippi during 1921, $1.00 each for the first ten specimens. Brood No. 20 of the Periodical Cicada that occurs during May and June of 1921 had been recorded from Georgia, North Carolina, and Virginia, but has never in the past been reported from Mississippi.

This paragraph is the most interesting. They probably mean 1-year stragglers from Brood XIX. (First, I think they mean 13-year or 17-year cicada, not 1-year locust. A 13-Year cicada collected in 1921 would belong to Brood XX (20), which doesn’t exist, and I don’t think it did at the time (I’ll check, may have gone extinct). A 17-year cicada that emerged in 1921 would belong to Brood XII (12) which also does/did not exist. There aren’t any stragglers (4 year) that line up as well. There are four broods that emerge in GA, NC & VA: II which would have emerged in 1928; X which would have emerged in 1919; XIV which would have emerged in 1923; and XIX which would have emerged in 1920 and definitely is also in Mississippi.)

Here’s a chunk of the article:

Prizes

Categories
Eating Cicadas Folklore

Cicada soap and snacks

I came across an article from 1876 in the Bossier Banner titled Edible Insects (The Bossier Banner., June 22, 1876. (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.)). The article covers many types of insects but has at least five paragraphs devoted to cicadas. The article uses the term “locust” interchangeably with “cicada”, and the author does seem to know the difference (see the last paragraph).

The most interesting bit of information is that people might have used cicadas to make soap and cakes.

I believe, in this paragraph, locust may refer to the grasshopper locust, but it could be cicadas as well:

Among the folk-lore of the Khoikhoi you may find this legend: “Faraway in the North-land dwells the great master-conjurer, who, when he wishes to confer a benefit on his people, rolls away a stone from the mouth of a certain deep pit and from it issues a host of winged messengers who soar away to the southward and there surrender themselves as a food to the hungry Africans.” These messengers are the famous locusts of which it is recorded that John the Baptist ate, and which are to-day sold by the cart-load in the cities of Morocco.

The “locust” in this paragraph is very likely cicadas, because of the use of the words “harmless” and “celebrated for its song”:

With how much affection the Romans spoke of the locust! “A little, harmless creature,” says one historian, “celebrated for its song from most ancient times.”

No reference to “locust” was made — definitely cicadas:

The same song was so dear to the Greeks, “because it seemed to give life to the solitude of our shady groves and academic walks, and conveys to our minds the idea of a perfectly happy being,” that they kept the insect in cages, and gave it pet names, as, “The Nightingale of the Nymphs,” “Sweet Prophet of Summer,” “The Love of the Muses.” Then, after all this lavishing of affection, they are it!

Could be either cicadas or grasshopper locusts:

Aristotle, with the smack of the lips, says of the female locusts, caught before the depositing of their eggs, and fried in sweet oil: “Quo tempore gustu suavissimo sunt”— “at which time they are very sweet.”

Sounds like it could be either:

Another naturalist says when the cicadae first leaves the earth they are plump and oily, and used in the making soap. Bread is also made of them, and in Africa a kind of sweet cake. This is probably what Shakespeare refers to when Iago, plotting against the Moor, says, in his wrath: “The food that to him now is as luscious as locusts shall be to him shortly as bitter as coloquintida” — the bitter apple of Crete.

This paragraph makes me think the author knows the difference between cicadas and grasshoppers:

These little, dew-sucking locusts are not to be confused with the strong-jawed grasshoppers, the Heupferde, or “hay-horses,” as Germans call them, and as Martin Luther translated the word from the Hebrew text, for, though used as food, it is the grasshopper that commits such depredations on the foliage.

Read/see the article on the Library of Congress website.

Categories
Massospora Matt Kasson

Cicada Fungi Research

Magicicada septendecim with Massosporan fungus found at the Edison Memorial Tower Park in Edison NJ
A “Salt-Shaker of Death”. (Deadly for the cicada, not humans.)

Many types of fungi will eat cicadas, but one type — the Massospora — specifically infests and destroys cicada genitalia. Specifically, Massospora cicadina attacks Magicicada cicadas, and Massospora levispora attacks Okanagana rimosa. According to the website MycoBank Database, there’s at least 19 species of Massospora. By the names of some, you can guess which cicada it infects; Massospora diceroproctae likely infects Diceroprocta cicadas.

It’s not certain, but there are sure to be many more species of Massospora fungi — if not one for each species, perhaps approximately one for each genus. Considering that Massospora infects cicadas all around the world, it’s fair to assume that Massospora has been infecting cicadas for many millions of years.

At West Virginia University, Matt Kasson & his team are studying Massospora, and are looking for samples of cicadas with these infections. Matt regularly Tweets photos and finding such as this one of spores from a Platypedia cicada:

If you have some samples of such cicadas and are willing to part with them, let Matt know.

Categories
Folklore

How the Cicadas Brought the Beans

This story, written by John Milton Oskison, was published on January 28, 1914, in the Richmond, Virginia, Times-Dispatch. It’s in the public domain, so I’ll share it here. Oskison was part-Cherokee and was born in the Cherokee nation. We can assume that this story is a retelling of Native American folklore, possibly Cherokee.

New Indian Animal Stories

How the Cicadas Brought the Beans

By John M. Okinson

Long time ago, in midsummer, when Lalu (the cicada) began to sing, the old women among the Indians used to go our to the fields with their baskets to gather green beans. And while they were away in the fields one of the old men would gather the little children and promise to tell them of how the cicada brought the beans to the people if the little ones would only keep quiet until their mothers and their grandmother got back and had put some beans to cook in the pot.

So white the little ones listened, the old man would tell them this story:

It was at the time the animals got so crowded in Galun-lati (the world above the arch of the sky) that they sent the tiny water beetle down to the world below to find some earth. And after the water beetle had gone own to the bottom of the water which covered all the earth at that time and had brought up a bit of mud, and after this bit of mud had grown to be the earth as we know it now, the animals all came down from Galun-lati.

Now, they were in such a hurry to get down to this earth, which they could see by looking over the edge of the world above, that it was hard for the great beaver, who was chief of the animal people, to make them remember to take food with them. Over and over the great beaver had to tell the animals that they had to take seed to plant on the new earth, as well as food to last them until the seed had had time to grow.

It was springtime when the earth got hard enough for the animals to live on; and then they came down, hand over hand, by way of the four cords which had been let down to hold the earth from the four corners of the world above. Every animal had on his back a pack which held food and seed for planting.

Now, the rabbit was the fellow who ought to have brought down the bag of beans for seed. But when he came to the edge of the world above and looked down, he was afraid that if he strapped a pack on his back, he would not be able to stick to the cord and come safely down to the earth. So when no one was looking, he took off the pack and threw it in a pile of brush.

And when the great beaver asked the rabbit for the seed beans to plant, the rabbit looked very sad and said that the strap on his pack had come loose and the pack had fallen before he was half way down. They all began to look for it, but it was not to be found!

And so the animals planted their corn and their tobacco, and their greens and their nut trees and their goobers and their potatoes. But they had no beans! And then they began to build their houses while they were waiting for everything to grow.

The animals did not know it, but they left behind the cicada. He had gone to sleep months before, when the winter was coming on; and it was not until midsummer, long after the others had gone down, that Lalu woke in Galun-lati and found himself alone.

And when the cicada had found that all the others had gone, he went all around the edge of the world above to find out where they had gone. And he came to the pile of brush into which the rabbit had thrown the beans for seed, and he found that the beans had been spilled out of the pack and were growing.

So, the cicada, being very hungry, cooked some of the green beans and sat down and began to eat them, though he knew that everybody had always waited for them to grow ripe and hard. And they were good! As he ate, he heard a noise down below. It was the animals in council, and they were talking about what they would have to eat next winter.

The cicada heard some of the talk and he leaned over and shouted:

“You must try some of these green beans!” And he threw down a handful. The animals tried them, and they were good! Then they told the cicada how to get down.

And now, whenever the cicada begins to sing, after waking from his long sleep, the people know that the green beans are ready to eat.

Some notes:

  1. “Indian” and “Indians” refers to Native Americans / Indigenous peoples in what is now the contiguous United States.
  2. It’s likely true that many species of cicadas start to sing when beans are ready to harvest.
  3. Cicadas don’t eat beans, however some species may drink fluids from bean roots at some point while they’re underground.
  4. Adult cicadas don’t go to sleep in the fall — they die. New-born cicadas do burrow underground in the summer and fall, so that much is true.
  5. Cicadas don’t just sleep underground. They lead productive, albeit relatively boring lives.
  6. Goobers are peanuts.
  7. Assuming this story is based on Cherokee folklore, we could assume the cicada was one of the many species found in Oklahoma.
Categories
Folklore Magicicada Periodical

Avoid “Locust Loco”

A nice illustration that shows the difference between Magicicada periodical cicadas & Locust grasshoppers from the April 18, 1919 edition of The Washburn Leader, Washburn, North Dakota.

Once you see them up-close, it’s clear that cicadas are not locusts. Nearly 98 years later, people still call cicadas “locusts” though.

1919

Categories
Folklore

Cigars got their name from cicadas?

Cigars got their name from cicadas?

A 1916 article titled “How Men’s Habits Began” (The Press Publishing Co, The New York Evening World) says this:

A cigar deserves a better start, but some of our highbrows claim it got its name from our little friend, the katydid. “Cigarro” was the Spanish name, and the learned ones twist this into coming from “cicada”.

This story seems believable. “Cigarra” is one word Spanish-speaking people use for cicadas. Cicadas do look like cigar butts. Katydids — while not cicadas — are insects that sing like cicadas, and their wings kind of look like tobacco leaves.

Here’s a link to the story.

Categories
Megatibicen Neotibicen

2017 Cicada Summer

Today is September 21st, 2017 — the last day of Summer, in central New Jersey. Leaves of maple trees have started to turn scarlet and yellow. Oaks are dropping their acorns. The few, remaining Morning (Neotibicen tibicen tibicen) and Linne’s (Neotibicen linnei) cicadas sound decrepit and tired — like tiny breaking machines, low on fuel and oil. I found one dead Morning cicada lying on a sidewalk — its body crushed. Here in New Jersey, at least, the cicada season is all but over.

Molting Neotibicen tibicen tibicen in Little Silver, NJ. August 26st.

As cicada years go, this one had ups and downs. It wasn’t as awesome as 2016, but I can’t blame the cicadas.

Downs:

  • No group cicada hunts this year. My cicada hobby is much more fun when I can share it with other people.
  • A skunk took over my favorite spot for finding Morning Cicada nymphs.
  • I had to go on a business trip during what would have been the best weeks for finding nymphs.
  • I forgot to bring my good audio recording equipment to Titusville, NJ & Washington Crossing, PA, and only got so-so iPhone audio of the weird N. winnemanna there.

Ups:

  • I found a new Megatibicen auletes location in Highlands, NJ. The location is about 50 miles north of where I usually find them.
  • I found more Megatibicen auletes exuvia than ever at the Manchester, NJ location where my friends and I normally hunt for auletes. Normally I find one or two — this year I found dozens. I found no adult specimens, other than those singing in the trees at dusk.
  • I did find enough exuvia & Morning cicadas that I should be happy.

Here’s some images from this summer:

Neotibicen tibicen tibicen with bad wing. The indigo color is fascinating. August 9th.
Neotibicen tibicen tibicen with bad wing

A Neotibicen tibicen tibicen found during a lunchtime stroll. September 1st.
Neotibicen tibicen tibicen 5

A female Neotibicen canicularis or maybe pink N. linnei found in Little Silver, NJ. August 25th.
female Neotibicen canicularis

You’ll find more activity on the Facebook page, Twitter, and Instagram.

And last, the most popular post on the Cicada Mania Facebook page:

Categories
Australia Cicadettini Clinopsalta L. W. Popple Papers and Documents

New species of Clinopsalta cicadas

Lindsay Popple announced on Twitter that two new species of Clinopsalta cicadas have been described.

Links:

Sounds: Calling songs of Clinopsalta cicadas.

Journal Article: TWO NEW SPECIES OF CLINOPSALTA MOULDS (HEMIPTERA: CICADIDAE) AND ADDITIONAL DISTRIBUTION RECORDS FOR CLINOPSALTA ADELAIDA (ASHTON), WITH NOTES ON THEIR DISTINCTIVE CALLING SONGS. Popple and Emery, 2017. Rec. Aust. Mus. 69(4): 237—256

Abstract from the journal article:

Two new species are described in the genus Clinopsalta Moulds. Clinopsalta autumna sp. nov. exhibits a warm temperate distribution from south-east Queensland south to Goulburn and Nerriga in eastern New South Wales. Clinopsalta semilunata sp. nov. has a patchy distribution in southern Queensland from Binjour Plateau west to near Miles, south to Yelarbon State Forest and Durikai State Forest, both near Inglewood. In addition to the descriptions of these new species, further distribution records are provided for C. adelaida (Ashton), which extend its distribution from south-eastern South Australia and northern Victoria to inland central and northern New South Wales. The species of Clinopsalta are small—medium sized cicadas (< 20 mm body length) with distinctive calling songs of an intermediate frequency (c. 6 to 18 kHz). The temporal structures of the calling songs follow a similar pattern in each species, comprising an introductory rattle followed by a series of clicking phrases. The call is characteristically accompanied with bouts of prominent wing-snapping, except in one species (C. semilunata sp. nov.).

Categories
Cicadettana David Marshall Kathy Hill Papers and Documents

A new genus for North American Cicadetta species: Cicadettana

A photo of a Cicadettana calliope calliope:
Cicadettana calliope photo taken by Paul Krombholz

New changes to the classification of the North American cicadas belonging to the genus Cicadetta have been published. The North American Cicadetta were found to be unrelated to the European Cicadetta (including the type species C. montana), so a new genus was needed. The new genus is Cicadettana. Research & paper by David Marshall and Kathy Hill.

Zootaxa page for the paper.

The generic classification of cicadas within the globally distributed tribe Cicadettini (Hemiptera: Cicadidae) has been challenging due to their often conservative morphology. A recent molecular analysis has indicated that the six North American taxa currently classified in Cicadetta are unrelated to the European type species of Cicadetta, C. montana Scopoli. Here we identify a set of diagnostic morphological characters for a new genus, which we distinguish from its closest relatives in Eurasia and Australasia.

Categories
FAQs Life Cycle

How long do cicadas live? Longest life cycle?

Which cicada has the longest life cycle?

The most famous cicadas — North American periodical cicadas — typically live 17 or 13 years. These cicadas only represent about 0.2% of all cicadas, most of which live shorter lives.

Magicicada septendecim cicadas live 17 years.
Magicicada septendecim cicadas live 17 years.

Cicada Life Spans:

Cicada life spans (life cycle length) vary from one year to as many as 21, depending on the species. Cicadas like Myopsalta crucifera and Parnkalla muelleri of Australia have one-year life cycles6. Magicicada septendecim, M. cassini and M. septendecula, of the United States, can live as long as 21 years (read What are Stragglers?).

Some life spans for well-known cicadas:

    North America:

  • Magicicada septendecim, M. cassini and, M. septendecula: 13 to 2210, but typically 17.
  • Magicicada tredecim, M. neotredecim, M. tredecassini, and M. tredecula: 9 to 17, but typically 13.
  • Diceroprocta apache: 2-5, but typically 3-4 years1.
  • Neotibicen and Megatibicen genera: 2-7 years2.
  • Okanagana rimosa: 9 years3.
  • Okanagana synodica: possibly 17 to 19 years.5
    Australia:

  • Cyclochila australasiae: 6-7. 6
    India:

  • Chremistica ribhoi: 4. 7
    Japan:

  • Hyalessa maculaticollis: 2-5, but typically 3. 8
    New Zealand:

  • Amphipsalta zealandica: 3-4, but typically 4. 9

Table 3 of the paper Genome Expansion via Lineage Splitting and Genome Reduction in the Cicada Endosymbiont Hodgkinia (Campbell et al, 2015) contains a large table of cicada life cycle lengths.

Annual, Periodical, or Protoperiodical

Most cicadas appear on an annual basis, meaning that every year adults will appear.

It is common for many species to be Protoperiodical as well, meaning that some years will see an abundance of adults, while other years there will be a limited number of that species. Okanagana rimosa, in particular, are Protoperiodical 9.

Some species, like the Magicicada species and Chremistica ribhoi, appear on a periodic basis, meaning that after a specific number of years almost all adults of the species will emerge.

Life Expectancy

Although many cicadas have long life cycles, not many of them make it to adulthood. Nymphal mortality of Magicicada can reach 98% in the first 2 years 4. Imagine if all those cicadas made it to adulthood. 50 times more cicadas! Unfortunately, that isn’t the case.

Magicicada is just one genus of cicadas (representing about 0.2% of all species), but I have to think that most cicadas, regardless of species, will never make it to adulthood.

How long do cicadas live as adults?

Short answer: about a month.

How long a cicada lives as an adult depends on the species, but the answer could be from a matter of seconds, if the cicada dies due to predation or an accident, to more than a month. Cicadas are primarily subterranean plant (mostly tree) parasites and only enter their above-ground, adult form to mate/reproduce.

A particular species of cicada, like Neotibicen tibicen tibicen, might appear to last for two or three months, because their song can be heard for that length of time, but that’s likely because they emerge over a month, not all on the same day, extending the length of time their species is present above ground.

No matter what the species, adult cicadas perish within a season or two, and do not live multiple years in their adult form, like other types of insects. They won’t try to move inside your house once winter approaches to find warmth and shelter.

References

1 Aaron R. Ellingson, Douglas C. Andersen and Boris C. Kondratieff (2002) Observations of the Larval Stages of Diceroprocta apache Davis (Homoptera: Tibicinidae), , Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society, Vol. 75, No. 4, pp. 283-289. Link.
2 Richard Fox, Tibicen spp, (2001) http://lanwebs.lander.edu/faculty/rsfox/invertebrates/tibicen.html
3 Soper RS, Delyzer AJ, & Smith LFR (1976) The genus Massospora entomopathogenic for cicadas. Part II. Biology of Massospora levispora and its host Okanagana rimosa, with notes on Massospora cicadina and the periodical cicadas. Ann. Entomol. Soc. Am. 69(1):89-95.
4 Karban R. 1984. Opposite density effects of nymphal and adult mortality for periodical cicadas. Ecology 65: 1656-61.
5 Campbell et al. 10.1073/pnas.1421386112.
6 Moulds MS (1990) Australian Cicadas (New South Wales University Press, Kensington, NSW, Australia).
7 Hajong SR & Yaakop S (2013) Chremistica ribhoi sp. n. (Hemiptera: Cicadidae) from North-East India and its mass emergence. Zootaxa 3702(5):493.
8 Logan DP, Rowe CA, & Maher BJ (2014) Life history of chorus cicada, an endemic pest of kiwifruit (Cicadidae: Homoptera). New Zealand Entomologist:1-11.
9 Kathy Williams & Chris Simon, The Ecology, Behavior, and Evolution of Periodical Cicadas, (1995), Annu.Rev. Entomol. 40:269-95.
10 David C. Marshall, John R. Cooley, and Kathy Hill, Developmental Plasticity of Life-Cycle Length in Thirteen-Year Periodical Cicadas (Hemiptera: Cicadidae), Ann. Entomol. Soc. Am. 104(3): 443Ð450 (2011)