{"id":17571,"date":"2022-05-12T04:33:26","date_gmt":"2022-05-12T11:33:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cicadamania.com\/cicadas\/?p=17571"},"modified":"2024-04-29T17:03:29","modified_gmt":"2024-04-30T00:03:29","slug":"chremistica-ribhoi-the-world-cup-cicada-is-emerging","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cicadamania.com\/cicadas\/chremistica-ribhoi-the-world-cup-cicada-is-emerging\/","title":{"rendered":"Chremistica ribhoi, the World Cup Cicada, is emerging!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chremistica ribhoi<\/strong>, aka Niangtasar and the World Cup Cicada, is emerging! Chremistica ribhoi<\/a> is a periodical cicada that lives in India (state of Meghalaya) and emerges every four years. It is nicknamed the World Cup cicada because it emerges the same year as the World Cup soccer\/football sports event. <\/p>\n

Sudhanya Ray Hajong<\/strong> sent us the following photos and text describing the event:<\/p>\n

A molted, teneral (soft) male:
\n\"a<\/p>\n

\nThe worldcup cicada emergence May 2022<\/strong><\/p>\n

The four year long wait is over for the young and old of the villagers of Saiden village in the
\nnortheastern Indian state of Meghalaya, and if you happen to be around you not fail to
\nnotice the excitement among the young and old, men and women here in Saiden . It is
\nbeginning of May and the World cup cicada or \u2018Niangtaser\u2019 as is called by the Bhoi
\ncommunity has started emerging. The forest of Iewsier located on this a remote corner of
\nthe world is suddenly buzzing with the calls of thousands of \u2018Niangtaser\u2019 or Chremistica
\nribhoi Hajong & Yaakop, 2013.<\/p>\n

Come sunset, one will see young children, boys and girls, and even aged man and
\nwomen with a bag carried around their shoulder, a piece of bamboo cane hung by tread
\naround their neck and a torch in hand \u2013 they are conversing in excitement and flocking in
\nsmall groups proceeding on trails taking them inside the forest. The atmosphere is almost
\nfestive and everyone is so friendly and smiling expecting eagerly to seek out and pick as
\nmany \u2018 Niangtaser\u2019 as possible, to be brought back home for delicious preparation and to
\nbe pickles and dried and kept for months to relish the unique taste that Mother nature has
\nbestowed.<\/p>\n

The nymphs with their powerful forelegs silently dig over ground in the stillness of the
\nnight and one can see the still freshly emerged nymphs covered in soil crawling sluggishly
\nseeking anything upright to cling upward until they can secure themself on the surface with
\ntheir claws, the slow process then begins, with the splitting of the thoracic integument
\nalong the mid dorsal line, the adult gradually pushes out of the shell until they are fully
\noutside the old exuviae, the wings which were crumpled slowly unfold and the now fully
\nemerged teneral adult with their fully spread-out wings appear as a beautiful greenish
\nethereal glow under the soft light of our headlamps.<\/p>\n

Come daylight and the adults now in hundreds and thousands fly out resting in clusters on
\ntips of twigs and branches of the several bamboos, one would hear the incessant and
\nalmost whistling crescendo of calls of the \u2018Niangtaser\u2019 with the rising heat of the sun if you
\nare just below these trees one would feel the rain like shower drizzling earthward from the
\nhundreds of adults peeing from the tree tops.<\/p>\n

This year though the fear of a fresh COVID resurgence had dampened the spirit of the
\nvillagers of Siden , as no \u2018Niangtaser\u2019 Festival could be organised with much fanfare like
\nthe previous emergence years.<\/p>\n

The Folklore of the Bhoi people \u2013 A sick old women who was transformed into the
\npeeing \u2018Niangtsers\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

Long ago as the Bhoi Khasis of Siden village traditionally believed that, there lived an old
\nwomen who suddenly fell sick with a strange stomach ailment that made her to go
\nfrequently to calls of nature for her frequent watery discharge. Fearing that her ailment
\nwould spread among the villagers, the village elders finally decided that she was to taken
\nto the forest and kept separated alone in a bamboo thatch until she could get herself
\ncured. It is said that, when the villagers next morning went to check on her with food and
\nwater, they were surprised to find they she had strangely vanished, but surprisingly they
\nfound thousands of the cicadas everywhere on the branches of the trees and strangely all
\nof them were found to be discharging some kind of fluid from the rear of their abdomen.
\nThey were thus lead to believe that the forest sprit feeling pity on her had transformed the
\nold sick women into thousands of the cicadas, and to this day the old women appear
\naround the forest of Iewsier in the form of thousands of \u2018Niangtasers\u2019 and even now she
\nstill suffers from her stomach ailment and pass frequent watery discharges from the top of
\ntrees.<\/p>\n

Will the \u2018Niangtaser\u2019 come again and again, after every four years, few village the elders
\nwho narrates how once upon a time \u2018Niangtaser were plentiful and widespread; and how
\nnow things have changed and how forest were gone along with many areas from were
\n\u2018Niangtaser\u2019 are no more found. They are saddened by this development and tells us that
\nthe number of \u2018Niangtaser\u2019is dwindling, forest patches where large number of them
\nemerges are no longer there, in its place farmlands and houses had appeared, they fear it
\nis not far when the folklore and the \u2018Niangtaser\u2019 that is so relished will vanish and only
\nremain a folklore of the distant past. The unique gift of mother nature may no longer be
\nthere if we do not check our greed and our want for more and more land and more
\nmaterial wealth. Village elders like Bah Kret Sungkli caution us that if we do not part our
\ngreedy ways we may have to lose this wonderful gift of mother nature.<\/p>\n

By Sudhanya Ray Hajong with able field assistance from my dear Rodeson Thangkiew,
\nwho was inspired by \u2018Niangtaser\u2019 and to take up his PhD in cicadas.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A poem by Sudhanya Ray Hajong:
\n\"Niangtaser<\/p>\n

Two nymphs that have emerged from the ground:
\n\"nymphs<\/p>\n

A molting adult:
\n\"emerging<\/p>\n

A molting adult:
\n\"side<\/p>\n

A molting adult:
\n\"teneral<\/p>\n

There’s also a brood of C. ribhoi that emerges during Leap-years. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chremistica ribhoi, aka Niangtasar and the World Cup Cicada, is emerging! Chremistica ribhoi is a periodical cicada that lives in India (state of Meghalaya) and emerges every four years. It is nicknamed the World Cup cicada because it emerges the same year as the World Cup soccer\/football sports event. Sudhanya Ray Hajong sent us the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[173,69,155,445],"tags":[227],"class_list":["post-17571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chremistica","category-india","category-periodical","category-cryptotympanini","tag-c-ribhoi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cicadamania.com\/cicadas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cicadamania.com\/cicadas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cicadamania.com\/cicadas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cicadamania.com\/cicadas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cicadamania.com\/cicadas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17571"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cicadamania.com\/cicadas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17571\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cicadamania.com\/cicadas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cicadamania.com\/cicadas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cicadamania.com\/cicadas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}