The Cicadas On Martha's Vineyard A Study - Summer 2006
So Why Martha's Vineyard?
Well, I tell you, studying cicadas in Massachusetts get's rather mundane after awhile. Since I have only heard and caught in Massachusetts Tibicen canicularis and Tibicen lyricen cicadas. Don't get me wrong, I know for a fact that there are other species here as well. Those being Okanagana rimosa and the Magicicadas (Brood XIV will be emerging in Barnstable and Plymouth counties in 2008). But these latter two, I have yet to obtain any live specimens.
In addition, not to take away from Connecticut which so far I have managed to document, T. canicularis, T. chloromera, T. linnei (sound recordings), T. lyricen and T. auletes (sound recording from Mike Neckermann). I feel that there has to be more than just two annual species here in Massachusetts. For instance back in 2005 in August, I heard and recorded a T. chloromera specimen right in my very own back yard! However, this may have been just a satellite male but it got me asking questions about the possibility of other species here.
Then this spring I obtained a paper written in 1928 for the Boston Society of Natural History. The author of this paper escapes me at present but in this paper is the following:
"The large Tibicen auletes is a southern species that has been found at New Haven, CT., Martha's Vineyard, Naushon Island and Brant Rock, Mass. It was quite common in the woods near Edgartown, August 22, 1912, but difficult to capture."
This little blurb really piqued my interest. Because of this, I had already investigated Brant Rock, which is on the South Shore of eastern Massachusetts.
Unfortunately, I didn't have much luck. Still, I was un-deterred. I decided to book a camp site and a ferry ride over to Martha's Vineyard to investigate. I will only be spending four days so not much sight-seeing of the tourist traps this time around. Well, I guess hiking in the woods on an island could be considered sight-seeing but for some reason there's no money in it for the island.
The following is an account of my adventure on Martha's Vineyard which is my first visit I might add.
August 10th, 2006 - Arrival
It took two and a half hours to get from North Chelmsford, Ma down to Woods Hole in order to catch the ferry for a 9:30 am crossing. I should've been exhausted but I was quite excited. This will be by first time on Martha's Vineyard.
I arrived on Martha's Vineyard around 10:30 am. It was still too early to check in at the campsite (checkin was 2:00 pm). I decided that I would go explore. The first thing I noticed was that the major roads are not marked. Only the streets that branch off are marked so needless to say I instantly got lost. But again, this wasn't a problem because as far as islands go, you really can't get all that lost especially when equipped with a topographical map and a hand-held gps so I was fine.
Along the coast of the island is pretty windy and there doesn't seem to be any cicadas calling here but that just could be that it is a bit too early. As I move further inland, all I can here is the familiar call of Tibicen lyricens. I'm very excited to hear this species here. It makes one wonder how the heck they got out here on an island! Maybe they've just always been here.
An Unexpected Surprise!
In the Vineyard Haven area, I happened upon one of my favorite sites for finding cicadas, a cemetery between Pine Tree Road and W. Spring Street so I decided to investigate. The Tibicen lyricens were calling quite loudly here when all-of-a-sudden I looked up on this large oak tree around 10 feet up on the trunk was a rather large exuvia. I pulled out my net with extension poles and gently got it down. Man! This thing is huge! This is a good sign. This definately looks like the exuvia of a Tibicen auletes for sure. And a male no less! Click the thumbnail above and to the left for a closer look.
For size comparison, I have placed this exuvia in the palm of my hand next to the exuvia of a Tibicen chloromera that I recently obtained when I vacationed in July in West Viriginia. Hopefully, this will give you an idea as to just how large this thing truly is.
Tibicen auletes Definately Here!!!
As I was walking around and admiring my new exuvia prize I couldn't believe my ears. I heard the distinctive call of a male Tibicen auletes! It was high up in a tree in the cemetery. Once you hear one of these, you'll never forget it let me tell you. This is definately an excellent time to be here. Could it be possible that I may actually capture a specimen? After all, in that paper, it stated that they were very difficult to capture. I can't believe my luck. The last documented sighting of T. auletes on Martha's Vineyard was in 1912! At least as far as I know. Click the thumbnail above and to the right to see if you can here it's call. Time was around 1:00 pm in the afternoon!
Time To Set Up Camp.
So far this is really turning out to be an excellent day. I've heard T. lyricen and a few scatterings of T. canicularis, I have discovered an exuvia that definately looks like T. auletes and now the calling song of a male specimen! I think now I will try to head over to the campground and set up camp and maybe get in a few hours hunting after setting up.
While setting up camp, I called my fiance to tell her the news and I also called my friend Mike Neckermann. He was very excited and then another T. auletes male started calling in the trees directly across from my campsite! It took me several hours to set up everything. I even brought my light traps in the hopes of maybe attracting a cicada. So far I have not had any luck with my traps but hopefully my luck will change during this trip. Click the thumbnail above and to the left to get a look at my setup. See the tarp over my tent? This sure came in handy let me tell you.
It took me several hours to set up. It sucks when you're by yourself. Setting up goes a lot slower when you are trying to set things up that really require two people but eventually, I got everything together on my own. I had already made friends with a family from the campsite to the right of me. They were from Schenectidy, Ny and were camping for 12 days. They seemed like really nice people.
Off On The Hunt Again!
It was around 6:00 pm when I finally made it out from the campsite to cicada hunt again. When the sun reaches a certain point, the temperature starts to drop off. I am not hearing any T. auletes calling but I am still hearing T. lyricen and the occassional T. canicularis.
I head on over to the Manuel F. Correllus State Forest. It consists of 5100 acres of land right smack in the middle of Martha's Vineyard and was established in 1908. It contains a lot of scrub oak (a short oak tree) as well as tall pines with a scattering of other types of desiduous trees. The soil all over the island is sandy which from what I have learned is ideal for T. auletes. Unfortunately, in this area I didn't hear any calling but I did manage to discover a T. canicularis female eclosing on a tall pine.
I spent the remainder of the day back at the Cemetery on Pine Tree Street. There were lots of T. lyricen calling and I again heard the call of T. auletes. I had my large net out but was unsuccessful in catching any cicadas.
I decided to make it an early night. I went back to the camp site and started a nice campfire and had a few brewskis then off to bed I went.
August 11th, 2006 - An Uneventful Day
I started off the day deciding to explore a little bit more of the island. I ended up in Edgartown and parked the car and walked around a bit to see what there was to see. Edgartown is a very nice and quaint little town on the western most end of the island and it was hopping with tourists. I walked along the beach for a while snapping a few pictures and taking some videos but eventually, I decided to see what I could get into with regards to finding spots to hunt for cicadas.
I soon discovered that there were very few places that I could go that weren't private roads and/or private property. I ended up at the first of many different wildlife refuge areas scattered around the island. These areas are places owned by the Land Bank of Martha's Vineyard. Their mission is to basically purchase and save areas of Martha's Vineyard so that it is not overrun by development. In this way some of Martha's Vineyard's wildlife and plant diversity can be protected.
This helps individuals like me and you who enjoy outdoor sports like swimming, hiking, biking, horseback riding picnicing in addition to other outdoor sports. Each area controlle by the land bank offers different points of interest and are unique to each other.
Today, I hiked the Waskosim's Rock Reservation on the border of Tisbury and Chilmark. While I heard many T. lyricens and a few T. canicularis I heard very few T. auletes but they were there. Unfortunately, the trees in at this wildlife preserve were too high for my net to reach and the undergrowth was extensive. However, I did manage to get a recording of T. auletes calling in Chilmark. Click the thumbnail to the left to watch and listen to the video.
Cicada Killers Spotted!
I guess where there's cicadas there are bound to be Cicada Killers. I spotted a single female at Waskosim's Rock Reservation. There were two burrows along the blue trail in an open meadow. She appeared to me to be on the rather large size. Unfortunately, she was so quick I couldn't get a decent picture off. However, I did managed to get an image of her rather large burrow. I can add this to my database of Cicada Killer sightings in addition T. auletes here.
Even More Cicada Killer Burrows!
In the evening after dinner back at the camp site, I decided to hike another of the land bank's wildlife refuges. This one is known as Trade Wind Fields Perserve and is located in Oak Bluffs. It is a grassland plain which used to contain a grass air strip that was used many years ago. Today, some small aircraft land here from time to time but I didn't witness any during my stay. There are a series of trails and dog owners can take their dogs here and let them run off-leash. I didn't hear any T. auletes here but I did hear T. lyricen. This doesn't mean that T. auletes wasn't here though because it was rather cool this evening which may have prevented them from calling.
But I did notice a cicada killer flying around and happened on a series of three burrows here. I couldn't tell if this was a lek or if these burrows were perhaps made by just this one female. Still it was pretty significant as this area was across the island from the last series of burrows I discovered.
There's not much more to report on this day. I did eventually make it back to the Cemetery again on Pine Street. The T. lyricens again were absolutely screaming but they were too high to catch. I think I need to start to hunt in the short scrub oak trees. These are everywhere, even on private property. I decided that I would concentrate in these areas. The scrub oaks do not get much higher than 20 feet. I think it is due to the sandy soil.
August 12th, 2006 - Two T. lyricens Captured Today!
I was getting pretty discouraged. I thought that I would be doing a lot better than I have been doing as far as obtaining cicada specimens up to this point. Time is becoming a factor. I'll be leaving on the 14th which is just two days away.
So far I had only managed to obtain a T. canicularis female during the eclose process in the state forest. But things did change for my today, significantly!
I found yet another wildlife refuge area run by the Land Bank. This area was known as Peaked Hill Reservation. This is the highest point on the island when you reach the top of the hill. You're a wopping 311 Ft above sea-level!
On the road to this wildlife refuge there were a lot of scrub oak so I decided to pull off because there were a lot of T. lyricen calling in the trees. I wanted to get some practice with my net in trying to catch a specimen. I figured I'd practice on the T. lyricen in order to get good at the opportunity of catching a T. auletes.
Well, I didn't really need my net when I caught my first specimen. I noticed it was calling from ground level. I was unable to see it but I knew it was there so I watched and waited. Sure enough I could see it walking around in the undergrowth so I caught it with my hands.
When I caught it, it gave off the usual loud alarm squawk. Upon closer inspection, I could see that half of one of it's forewings was missing. It apparently got torn off somewhere along the way. No doubt by a predator. Click the thumbnail to the right to listen to this male specimen's alarm squawk.
This specimen seemed unusual to me. If you look at the Morphologies In Tibicen lyricen Cicadas page, you will see that T. lyricens are mainly brown, green and black. Well this specimen contained mostly green and black coloring. There is a spattering of the lightest hint of brown on the mesonotum, but there really isn't all that much. Still, I was happy with catching a specimen on Martha's Vineyard, and a really unusual specimen at that. Enjoy the pictures of this specimen below.
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Pic 1
Pic 2
Pic 3
Pic 4
Pic 5
Pic 6
- Pic 1 - Dorsal view - note the green coloring. T. lyricens usually have brown AND green.
- Pic 2 - Lateral view.
- Pic 3 - Closeup of mesonotum and head.
- Pic 4 - Ventral view, note the ripped wing.
- Pic 5 - Closeup of head ventraly.
- Pic 6 - Closeup of head dorsaly.
