Cicada Journals August 20th - August 5th 2006
08/20/06 - New Cicada Information for Martha's Vineyard
Hi All, I don't know if you all remember but I was on vacation from August 10th to the 14th. I decided that I wanted to go to Martha's Vineyard in order to document the different species of Cicadas there. This was formulated due to a paper I read dated in 1928 which indicated that T. auletes could be found there so I wanted to check it out.
I am happy to report that there are cicadas there on Martha's Vineyard that so far I have been unsuccessful in effectively documenting here on the mainland of Massachusetts! That's right. I managed to document four species: T. canicularis, T. lyricen, T. chloromera and T. auletes! While T. canicularis and T. lyricen where not much of a surprise, the latter two mentioned above were indeed quite a surprise.
I heard approximately 6 to 8 male T. chloromera calling only in one spot on Martha's Vineyard, at the West Tisbury post office. I only heard them for just one day on August 10th but they were indeed there for sure.
T. auletes Male Specimen Captured on Martha's Vineyard!
At first I was not successful in capturing a specimen but the 13th of August prooved to be a very fruitful day. Prior to that on my first day there, I was successful in recording the call of T. auletes and even managed to obtain a cast-off nymphal shell of a male.
Below are some quick images and a link to a 44 second video of this specimen's alarm squawk.
The full account of my 4 day Cicada trip to Martha's Vineyard can be found as a new category under the "Away Missions" section. I was able to obtain specimens of T. canicularis and T. lyricen. I have even noted a different color variation for T. lyricen. In addition, I posted alarm squawk videos of the two T. lyricen specimens I captured.
Also I've never done this before but there is an image of me with my prized T. auletes specimen. If you want to see what I look like, then check check it out.
Cicada Killers Also On Martha's Vineyard!
I guess wherever there are cicadas there are bound to be cicada killers. I noted four separate cicada killer burrows at various locations on the island. I even managed to capture a specimen. So don't forget to read the full account of Cicadas On Martha's Vineyard. There's tons of images and video for your enjoyment.
More Reader Submissions Have Been Posted.
I'm still getting tons of email with regards to your cicada killer and cicada sightings. Unfortunately, I am going to have to discount the sightings of Cicada killers if they do not come with either a specimen in the mail (thanks to those who have sent them in) or a digital image that I can have for confirmation. It's important that the distribution data is accurate.
Please keep sending in the inquiries and questions however even if you don't have a picture. I answer ALL EMAIL.
Site Maintenance
I have been getting complaints that a lot of the videos on this site are way too big for some to download. To that end, I have been working on compressing all the video files on this web site. Starting with the most recent and working backwards. So the videos uploaded now are all in .wmv format which makes them a lot faster and easy to download. When this new project is completed for every video on this site, I will let you know.
08/21/06 - Eastern Tibicen Cicada Species
So this evening I get an email from Dr. Kathy Hill from the University of Connecticut at Storrs. She studies cicadas there. I guess she wanted to prove that Tibicen auletes is the biggest Tibicen cicada in the United States, even bigger than T. resonans and Quesada giga.
Speaking from first hand experience, I do indeed know that T. auletes is one massive cicada. I am actually glad that it is bigger than Quesada giga myself. Anyway, below is her email:
Hi cicada people,
I just took a photo of all the "eastern USA" Tibicens except
latifasciata, which we haven't got yet (I didn't include the "little
western" Tibicens like T. texana that are more centrally located
either). But I did also add T. duryi from the west coast and Q.
gigas, just for comparison.
Feel free to use this photo however you want - I just wanted to prove
that auletes IS the biggest USA cicada :)
The specimens are all males, and I tried to pick the biggest one that we had.
Happy cicada hunting,
Kathy
The below images are indeed a valuable resource. Unfortunately, the image was so large that I had to break it up into smaller images in order to post it here for you.
A big thank you goes out to Dr. Kathy Hill for these valuable images. Enjoy.
08/27/06 - Unusually Cold Here in the North.
Well folks, I sure hope the season hasn't ended early here in the northeast. This past week, I've only heard Tibicen canicularis calling in the trees around my work and very few T. lyricens. Also for the last couple of days there has been no calling in the trees whatsoever because it has been unusually cool. Last year around this time I was still hearing T. lyricens calling and even managed to snag a few in Connecticut on September 5th. But this year due to the early cool and rain there's been no sound at all. As a matter of fact, its been so cool outside that I actually had to close some windows and put on a sweater! It seems that fall is definately coming.
Cicada Videos and Sounds
Last update I indicated that I was going to reformat all my video files for easier download. Well, I just thought I'd mention that I completed this task. While I was reformatting, I decided to gather up all these video and sound files and put them all on a single page for easier viewing.
I have gathered various calling songs and alarm squawks of Tibicen cicadas as well as a few of Magicicadas from the Brood X emergence back in 2004. So now you can here the cicada calling songs of Tibicen lyricen, T. canicularis, T. chloromera, T. auletes and T. linnei.
Hundreds of Cicadas Coming from Kansas
So I've been communicating with a fellow from Kansas. Apparently they are having quite the abundance of cicadas this year. He told me his kids were looking for odd jobs this year in order to make some extra money and he asked if I would be interested in receiving some cicadas.
I of course said yes. I agreed to 30 cents per cicada plus the cost of shipping, the only stipulation I put on the whole thing was that I needed to know the who, what, where, when and how of the cicadas for my distribution mapping and for labels.
They have sent one box to me on Saturday containing 57 cicadas and now another box containing 50 which will be going out Monday.
Species seems to be as follows:
T. auletes
T. marginalis (or walkeri)
T. pruinosa
T. davisi (??)
T. dorsata
Apparently they find them even sitting on the sidewalks and on the lower limbs of trees and bushes. They mentioned something like 7 total different species but I'll know for sure when I get them.
I'll have images posted on the site very soon.
