"Why Cicadas?"

Cicadas are perhaps the most intriguing insects that I've ever come across. Not to say that I'm an expert in Entomology because I'm not but from what I've learned about this species has kept my interest in Cicada's for many a year. I remember when I first ran across the Tibicen species, it was in Baltimore City. Though it was 30 years ago, I still remember it like it was yesterday.

"Where?"

I grew up in a neighborhood off of Bel Air Road and Eastern Avenue. Our neighborhood consisted of three main streets; Mareco (where I lived), Lawnview and Cliftmont avenues. These three streets were bisected down the middle with Annetta Avenue giving our neighborhood 6 blocks total (3 blocks on one side of Annetta and 3 blocks on the other). As a matter of fact, you might even say that our neighborhood is famous. If you've seen the movie "Tin Men" starring Danny DeVito and Richard Dreyfuss there are a few shots of Cliftmont Avenue in that movie as the majority of the film was filmed right in Baltimore.

But I digress; this was supposed to be about Cicada's wasn't it?

"Step into the Way-back Machine...."

My first Cicada experience was at the neighborhood vacant lot bordering Annetta Avenue and one of the many back alleys that ran behind the row houses in which we lived. I was around 10 years old at the time. I remember it was hot and my friend Tom and I were waiting for the rest of the neighborhood gang to meet us down at the vacant lot to get a game of touch-football going. While I was growing up, the vacant lot was the neighborhood gathering place. Girls and boys alike would gather here to socialize.

"What the heck?"

While waiting for the rest of our friends to arrive and being very bored, I turned over a large rock. Underneath was this rather large bug. I remember as soon as I turned the rock over, the bug was all a-blur because it kept on fluttering and flicking and buzzing along the ground. All the buzzing startled me so I immediately turned the rock back over to cover the bug and I called my friend Tom over. "Hey, Tommy you're never gonna believe this! Watch when I turn this rock over." Sure enough when I turned the rock over, again the bug started fluttering and flicking and buzzing along the ground. Tommy jumped back startled so I turned the rock back over on it again.

Looking at me eyes very wide he said, "Hey, did you see that?"
"Yeah."
"What do you think it is?"
"I have no idea, maybe we should get your dad."

The back of Tom's house bordered the vacant lot and both of us ran toward it. While running, Tom was yelling "Dad! Dad! Come here! We need to show you something!"

"Shock and Awe!"

Toms father; who, judging by the way his son was yelling, thought that we must've found a dead body or something. He came running out of the house, "What's wrong?"
I answered, "We found a big bug under a rock!" and Tom added, "Yeah and it's as big as a horse!"

"A reality check."

Walking back towards the vacant lot and the rock, looking at Tom, Tom's father said, "Now Tom, stop exaggerating, if it was as big as a horse, it wouldn't fit under a rock now would it?" Smiling sheepishly Tom replied, "Sorry dad but you gotta see this bug, it's really big."

"Great expectations deflated."

Kneeling over the rock I grasped it and looked at Tom's father. "Are you ready?"

"Yes." He replied. I carefully turned the rock over. By this time the bug wasn't flapping and fluttering. It was just there nice and quiet. Tom and I together looked up at his father in anticipation of his reaction. Picking it up he said, "Oh, that's just a locust." Tom and I both felt a little deflated at his response to seeing an insect that we've surely hadn't seen before in our young lives.

"That can't be right...can it?"

When he said it was a "locust" I thought that I didn't hear him right so I said "A what?" He replied, "A locust. A heat-bug. They come out every summer and are quite common. I'm surprised you boys haven't seen these before. They make that strange sound in the trees during the summer."

Thinking back to Sunday school and how the instructor talked about the plagues of locusts visited on people during the time of Jesus, I thought that locusts were grasshoppers and this surely wasn't any grasshopper that I've ever seen.

"Don't ask questions if you know what's good for you."

Being intimidated by Tom's father I decided to keep my mouth shut and not ask too many questions. After all, we dragged him out of his air-conditioned house to look at a bug.

Tom's father handed the locust to his son and walked back up to the house and that was that. That was my first exposure to a Cicada (which at the time I thought of as a locust).

Now I know what you must be thinking. Especially if you know about the lifecycles of Cicadas. You're probably thinking we definately didn't find a true Cicada but maybe what we thought was a Cicada because Cicadas are not known to be found under rocks. But I tell you, I found this Cicada under a rock.

"Our time with Lucky."

Tom and I were fascinated by this locust and even took turns keeping it at each other's house. While handling the locust it kept making the buzzing alarm sounds. We even named it "Lucky the Locust" because we felt "lucky" to have caught one. We were very upset when it died. We caught several different locusts that summer and I remember that they all never really did live long. Maybe two to three days maximum.

"A logical conclusion."

Thinking back over the years I have concluded that perhaps this Cicada's emergence hole just happened to be under a rock. (This is assuming that you already know something about the life cycles of Cicadas). After all if you read the account above you will see that I was able to turn the rock over then back onto the Cicada several times without harming it. Perhaps there was a hollow area where the rock met the ground that was large enough for Lucky to crawl out and do his molting. In all our excitement of that day, I do not remember seeing Lucky's exuvium but it could of been there and at that time I was unfamiliar with the lifecycle of Cicadas.

"The hunt begins!!"

During that summer Tom and I continued to look under various rocks in the hopes of finding other Cicadas. I have not been fortunate to find any other Cicadas emerging from the ground under rocks. Lucky was the only Cicada that I have ever found this way.

We were surprised at how easy they were to catch because they liked to stay in low bushes and their calling sound attracted us. It was during this time that we learned that the males called for females and that females were silent. We were also surprised to discover that there were different species of "locusts" in our neighborhood with the males making very different calling sounds. We liked to catch the males because of course they were the easiest to catch and we liked their alarm calls when captured.

"The quest for knowledge."

Seeking more information on these "locusts" that we were catching, I remember going to my local library that was within walking distance of my house. The library was on Erdman Avenue known as the "Enoch Pratt Free Library". Walking up to the Librarian I asked for information on "locusts". She showed me a book on insects on the subject and in the book was a picture of a locust. As I previously suspected, a locust was actually a winged grasshopper. When I explained to her what my friend and I had found and caught during that summer she said, "That sounds like a Cicada. A common mistake when it comes to indentifying this insect."

She turned to a picture in the same book and I exclaimed, "That's it!! That's what my friend and I caught!" I told Tom what they were actually known as and that there were many many different species all over the world. He was totally amazed. Looking back now, the actual species that Lucky the Locust was, was a Tibicen chloromera.

"That's not entirely accurate."

We learned in books of that era (back in the 70's) that there were actually 5, 7, 13 and 17 year periodical Cicadas and 1 - 3 year Annual Cicadas. It was only later through the years that I learned that there are no such thing as 5 or 7-year periodical Cicadas. There is a species that comes close and that is the Okanagana rimosa species which have a 4 year life cycle.*

We also learned that Cicadas actually live under ground during those years in a stage known as a "nymph". When they were below the ground in their nymph stage they feed off of the juices of tree roots. When they emerged from the ground, whatever nourishment they obtained from all the years feeding off of tree roots during their nymph stage was designed to sustain them for their 1 to 2 week period above ground and that they had no mouths for eating.

This later also proved to be a false fact. I can remember when I was a boy that one Cicada in particular would try to insert a rigid long tube-like appendage into my skin. At the time, I thought that it was trying to sting me without much success because while it was only slightly uncomfortable, it didn't really do any damage. This tube-like mouth part is actually designed to penetrate branches of trees and that the juices of the trees could be "sucked-up" through this appendage for nourishment and to help the Cicada avoid dehydration.

We learned that when they emerged from the ground, that their sole purpose was to mate and the female to lay her eggs in the branches of trees then both males and females die.

Annual Cicadas actually live underground 1 to 2 years at the most.** The fact that they lived underground in varying stages of nymphs for so long we found totally facinating and started looking for nymphs as they emerged from the ground at night.

But unfortunately while we found many discarded nymph shells or "exuvia" and also many exit tunnels around trees, we were never fortunate to discover Cicada nymphs emerging from the ground. I suspect that they would start to emerge well after we were in bed at night.

"The cicada with the fiery red eyes."

We also learned at that time about the Periodical Cicadas that emerge every 13 and 17 years. We were fascinated by their fiery red eyes and orange transparent wings and the fact that they lived under ground for 13 or 17 years depending on your location. We couldn't wait until they emerged in our area. The books we had access to didn't break down for us the different broods nor the years of their emergence but I remember hoping every year that we would see these Periodical Cicadas.

"A new interest and new direction."

The following summers were spent catching Cicadas and other insects like Praying Mantises and Katydids. We were interested in Katydids because they made a similar noise to Cicadas - at least to our young ears and we were interested in Praying Mantises because quite frankly, they were brutal and we were fascinated with how they devoured other insects like the Daddy Long-Legs (Harvestmen Opiliones).

But slowly over time as one grows older, one's interests change through the years and fate steers us down different paths. My interests turned more towards girls and cars in my teenage years and Tom's life was going down a very different direction than mine. But still, whenever I heard a Cicada's call my head would turn...

I left the Baltimore area in 1980 returning from time to time to visit my family after moving to New England. Over the years whenever I visited Maryland, if I heard an Annual Cicada calling in a tree or bush, I actually resisted the urge to go see if I could find it and catch it. I actually felt kinda silly for even thinking about trying to catch one after all this time. "Catching bugs was for little boys with wads of chewing gum between their cheek and gum, dirty hands, scraped knees and baseball cards in their back pockets.", I thought.

But even to this day, the urge has always been there and whenever I hear a Cicada calling, it takes me back to those hot nights growing up in Baltimore with my friend Tom by my side running around like chickens with our heads missing trying to catch a Tibicen every time we heard them call.

*Chris Simon - Professor; Editor of Systematic Biology, University of Connecticut - "Soper et al. found that the life cycle was approximately 9 years but they do have heavy emergences every 3 or 4 or 5 years and light emergences in between." Thanks Chris

**Chris Simon - Professor; Editor of Systematic Biology, University of Connecticut - "Rick Karban wrote a review paper on cicada life cycles. Few annual cicada life cycles are known but the ones that are known range from two to nine years."