Cicada Journals June 5th 2007 - Brood XIII

06/05/07 - Tons of Fun In Illinois!

Hi everyone, sorry I'm so late with the updates but there has been so much stuff going on that at the end of each day, I'm too tired to write anything. But I know that I am only making things worse for myself, because the longer I procrastinate with the updates the more difficult it will be to get them done because I will fall farther and farther behind. Not to mention all my data and my photos need to be arranged in such a way that makes sense for you. Suffice it to say, tons of interesting work is going on here!

I met up with Joe Green, after driving in from Indiana on June 1st. Joe is a fellow cicada enthusiast who is also a member of my Cicadidae group. We were staying in the same Red Roof Inn hotel in Northbrook which made things convenient. I'll break down as best I can where we went.

Joe and I spent all day June 2nd going all over the Deerfield and Northbrook Illinois area mapping Brood XIII's distribution and noting the intensity of the different calls.

First Stop Somme Woods Forest Preserve

This is a small wooded preserve which is actually right around the corner from the hotel on the corner of Waukegan and Dundee Road. Somme Woods Forest Preserve was crawling with Magicicada on June 2nd. We arrived around 7:30 am and the M. septendecim seemed to be starting up. There is also some M. cassini around as well. They seem to start to go, then all-of-a-sudden stop. I mentioned this to Joe. I think that it is still pretty cool for them at this time of the morning.

We were even finding nymphs on some of the trees. Joe took a few specimens to see if he could get them to eclose in a special jar. Click the thumbnail to the left for a closer look at this Magicicada nymph on Joe's forearm.

Unfortunately we were finding a ton of evidence of deformities and other malformed cicadas in this area. But one has to take the good with the bad. We found examples of malformed wings, the Massospora Cicadina fungal infection and even failures to properly eclose. Plus other strange oddities. Click the thumbnails below.

It would seem that as the natural areas around Chicago continue to decline and the wild places become less and less, "overcrowding" for places to eclose by the Magicicada will continue to see evidence of huge deformities due to the competition for space. Magicicada nymphs can be quite aggressive when trying to find a good spot to molt.

Even the lower life forms seemed to like to prey on cicadas in one form or another. Below we found some evidence of what seemed to be a form of "parasitism".

Sometimes though, some of the deformities can be very unique like the series of photos below. These were taken from an eclosing male M. septendecim that seemed to be lacking the red pigmentation to a portion of one of it's eyes. A very unique and odd thing. Everyone has heard of the rare blue or white eyed Magicicada but this is something different. Click the thumbnails below for a closer look.

Joe Green and I stayed at the Somme Woods Forest Preserve for several hours and despite all the problems with the Magicicada that we saw here, there were still a ton that seemed to be very healthy and none the worst for wear. Click the thumbnails below for happy Magicicadas.

Next Stop - Northwood Circle off Waukegan - Deerfield

We decided to stop in this rural neighborhood because Joe and I could not get over just how loud the chorusing Magicicada were. Not to mention on the corner way down low seemed to be unusually high concentrations of cicadas. It was around 10:00 in the morning so everyone was in "full swing" with the chorusing.

The Tree of a Hundred Tenerals!

Then a short walk down Northwood Circle, I discovered a tree that was covered in Magicicada tenerals at various stages of completion of their molting process. It was truly a sight to see.

For those wondering, a teneral is what a newly molted cicada is actually known as. It is the soft pink or white fragile state before their exoskeleton fully hardens. Other types of insects like dragonflies and damselflies can also be tenerals as they go from a nymphal form through an eclose process to a fully developed adult state. But like previously stated, places to molt are at a premium for Magicicada in northern Chicago so some of these guys will not be able to complete the process. For now click on the thumbnails below to see these amazing photos.

Magicicada septendecim Mating Call

While walking back up to the corner I could hear the lone call of a Magicicada septendecim male. What an ideal opportunity to video this! Click the thumbnail to the right to have view the video. Look for more cool videos like this to come during this incredible Brood XIII emergence.