Cicada Journals August 6, 2004 to August 8, 2004
8/06/04 - St. Patrick Cemetery - Lowell, MA.
11:00 AM - After meeting the crew at Pine Crest Cemetery, I decided before I headed home to check St. Patrick this morning. It's really unusual to get newly emerged Cicadas this time of day.
All the literature I have read seemed to indicate that the best time to find Cicadas was at night when the sun went down. This is obviously not the case however.
Today is no exception. I have discovered a newly emerged Cicada on a Maple tree bordering one of the many roadways of the cemetery. It's small so I conclude that it is T. canicularis.
I look around for others but only find signs of exuvia.
I do a wider search and find a live nymph crawling on an Oak tree in another part of the cemetery. I look at my watch and discover it's nearly noon!!
I decide to take this nymph home and conduct an experiment.
I have learned that a Cicada nymph will molt anywhere it can securely anchor it's legs. My little finger is no acception. To the left are thumbnails showing this T. canicularis going through the complete molting process on my little finger.
More has been written on this subject in the Noted Cicada Behaviors page.
The complete time sequence of this Cicada's molt can be found in the Cicada Gallery.
Note the end result as indicated in the very bottom thumbnail. This female Cicada actually has silver highlights with burgundy wing veins.
Enjoy.
8/07/04 - Night Visit Number 1 Pine Ridge Cemetery - Chelmsford, MA.
9:45 pm - I decided to head to Pine Ridge and try my luck here. I found many signs of exuvia on many trees with the majority of them being pine. No Cicadas molting however as it is a very cool evening. The shells I'm seeing may be a result of daytime molting.
8/07/04 - Night Visit Number 2 St. Patrick Cemetery - Lowell, MA.
10:42 pm - With no luck at Pine Ridge I decided to head to St. Patrick. I find even more evidence of exuvia. I walk around checking my favorite Ash trees. I found one T. lyricen in the middle of molting. I see that my friendly skunk (the one I wrote about previously) has also decided to pay me a visit. I manage to steer clear of it however. I keep forgetting to bring my camera however, I coulda got some great shots of him.
The T. lyricen looks different from others that I have found so I decide to take this guy. I had to wait for him to complete the molt process.
While waiting I decided to walk around the cemetery and check for others. I found a T. canicularis molting on a pine tree.
I didn't get out of St. Patrick Cemetery till almost 1:00 am!
8/8/04 - Back Again at Pine Ridge Cemetery - Chelmsford, MA.
10:30 am - With my poor luck the night before here, I decided to try my luck during the day. I searched practically the entire cemetery with no luck. Just as I was about to leave, I found a female T. canicularis at the base of a pine tree.
Too bad every picture I took of her came out rather blurry so I'm sorry to report I got no pics for you.
8/8/04 - St. Patrick Cemetery - Lowell, MA.
11:49
am - While at St. Patrick, I decided to check the Oak tree where
I found the little T. canicularis the day before. Nothing on the
tree but right next to the tree was a T. lyricen in the middle
of the molt process on a monument. Now I gotta check monuments now as well?!?!?
I noticed a nymph exuvium on another monument and also another T. canicularis nymph just settling down to molt. Any place is a convenient place to molt I guess.
I decide to check other areas of the cemetery. I found another T. lyricen male at the base of a willow tree just done the molt process.
