Cicada Mania

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

September 7, 2018

Cicada Fun with Google Trends

Filed under: Australia | Brood X | Life Cycle | Periodical — Tags: — Dan @ 9:22 pm

Note: I originally took this article down because embedding Google Trends slowed down the loading of the page. I’m republishing without the embeds.

This article was inspired by Serious Fun with Google Trends by Simon Leather.

Google Trends is a Google website that lets you see trends in the search terms over time. When people search for “cicada” it usually means cicadas have emerged in their area at the time they search.

The following graph shows when people searched for “cicada” over the past 10 years in the United States. The largest spike, in May of 2004, coincided with the emergence of Brood X. See it on Google Trends.

Google Trends 2004-2015

You might think that periodical cicada emergences cause the largest spikes, but not always — and not just because periodical cicadas don’t emerge every year.

2004: Cicada searches spiked May 16-22, which was Brood X — Magicicadas.
2005: Jul 31-Aug 6 spike which was for Neotibicen Cicadas. No periodical cicadas.
2006: Aug 13-19, Neotibicen Cicadas. No periodical cicadas.
2007: May 20-26, Brood XIII — Magicicadas.
2008: Brood XIV Magicicadas emerged (spike Jun 8-14), but the largest spike was Jul 29-Aug 2, Neotibicen Cicadas.
2009: Aug 16-22, Neotibicen Cicadas.
2010: Aug 8-14, Neotibicen Cicadas.
2011: May 29-Jun 4, Brood XIX — Magicicadas.
2012: Jul 29-Aug 4, Neotibicen Cicadas.
2013: May 5-11, Brood II — Magicicadas.
2014: Brood XXII — Magicicadas had a relatively small spike May 25-31, compared with Aug 24-30 for Neotibicen Cicadas (late season due to cool weather). There was also a teeny bit of a spike around January of 2014 due to the “cicada 3301” meme/game.
2015: Brood XXIII & IV Magicicadas emerged (spike around Jun 7-13), but the largest spike was around Aug 9-15 for Neotibicen Cicadas.

Which cities had the most cicada searches over the past 14 years? Nashville, Baltimore, Cincinnati, Arlington, Washington, Alexandria, Pittsburg, St. Louis, Columbus, and Chicago. Time to move to Nashville.

Australia

In Australia, searches for “cicadas” peaks in December (summertime in Australia). It looks like there is a year-over-year pattern arising as well, with peaks every 4 years (2009, 2013, 2017) particularly, if you drill down to New South Wales.

Australia Google Trends

Japan

In Japan, searches for “セミ” peaks in August.

Google Trends Japan

Other countries

  • Argentina peaks in March for cigarra.
  • Brazil peaks in October and April for cigarra.
  • France peaks in July for cigales.
  • Mexico peaks in May or June for chicharra, but October for cigarra.
  • New Zealand peaks in February for cicadas.
  • South Korea peaks in July for 매미.
  • Spain peaks in July for cigarra.

Now I know when to visit these countries. 🙂

Try it yourself.

July 6, 2017

Cicada 3301 cicada compared to Distantalna splendida

Filed under: Distantalna | Identify | Pop Culture | Tosenini — Tags: , — Dan @ 9:08 pm

Today I took a fresh look at the 3301 Cicada image. In the past I thought it was a composition of multiple cicadas — and it still might be — but I now think it’s primarily a Distantalna splendida formerly Tosena splendida, a cicada found in southern Asia (China, India, Burma, Thailand, Vietnam, etc.). Distortions caused by embossing — or whatever filters they used — make identifying the cicada difficult.

Here’s my comparison of the wings.

cicada 3301

I will probably do a comparison of the body and head at some point.

Here’s a photo of this Splendid cicada:
splendida

Specimens vary in appearance (size, wing patterns) from individual to individual — they all look similar, but they’re not exact matches. The process of spreading a specimen’s wings and preserving it can also alter its appearance, and introduce unnatural changes to the insect’s morphology.

Distantalna splendida are easy to find on eBay or taxidermy shops if you’re interested, although they’re often mislabeled using their former name Tosena splendida, or something totally different.

Bonus:

Here’s an illustration from A Monograph of Oriental Cicadas by W. L. Distant. 1889-1892. Read it on the Biodiversity Heritage Library website:

3301 Cicada

More information about 3301: Cicada 3301 – solution.

January 12, 2014

Cicada 3301 Logo

Filed under: Pop Culture — Tags: — Dan @ 11:33 am

A few weeks ago someone asked me what species of cicada the Cicada 3301 logo represented. At the time I did not know what Cicada 3301 was. Later on I learned that Cicada 3301 is some kind of international organization that uses puzzles to recruit people who are really good at figuring out puzzles … or something like that. This sounds very interesting, and it might be something I would be into if I had more free time.

Here is the 3301 logo (which is presumably copyrighted by the Cicada 3301 organization):

cicada 3301

The logo appears to be a photo of a cicada processed with an emboss filter. (I’ve seen other versions of the logo, which look like the embossed logo run through an ASCII filter that makes it look like the green alphanums on a black background like the Matrix or the Homebrew setting for Terminal windows on the Mac.)

The interesting thing about the 3301 logo is that the cicada appears to be a collage. The veins of the right hind wing are different than the left hind wing. Either the wing was taken from a different species, or the lines that appear in the anal lobe were cloned/copied to cover the entire hindwing.

cicada wings

Interesting. When I have more time I’ll try to ID the actual cicada — or at least the primary species the image was made from.

I wonder what 3301 stands for? Entomologists Enjoy Only Insects?

Cicada T-shirts