Cicada Journals September 1 to September 3, 2004
09/01/04 - Female T. canicularis Found Dead - Home - No. Chelmsford, MA.
11:00 am - I found the female that I marked expired along with the male at the bottom of the terrarium. Only one female is still alive. These 6 Cicadas have lasted over a week in the terrarium.
Over all, I don't think that I'm doing too well with Cicadas in captivity. I've heard of them living a lot longer. Maybe next year I will have to try different plants while they did seem to feed on a regular basis, I'm still disappointed that they only lived slightly more than a week.
09/01/04 - No Luck at St. Patrick Cemetery - Lowell, MA.
I have been here for several hours today. No luck finding Cicadas on my favorite Ash trees. I may have to start thinking that the season may be a short season here in Massachusetts. I did a wide survey of the area again and I did discover many exuvia.
It's difficult to tell how long they have been where they are. Maybe several days or maybe only a few hours. On my way out of the cemetery, I did discover one female. Here's a great opportunity to conduct my little experiment that I mentioned yesterday.
I'll put her in the terrarium to see if she oviposits in a few days. I think that I may do one or two more night trips to St. Patrick's to see if any more Cicadas can be found. I'd still like to find more T. lyricens. I'm still hearing males calling in the trees but it seems to be fewer and fewer as the days go by.
09/01/04 - Night Visit to St. Patrick Cemetery - Lowell, MA.
9:00 pm - I decided to do a night visit. Basically the same results. After walking doing a wide survey of St. Patrick Cemetery I only managed to find one female T. canicularis on one of my favorite ash trees. I've been here for 2 hours and this place is really starting to creep me out. I'm hearing all kinds of strange animal noises in the trees. Also strange animal alarm calls in the night sky.
Ever get that feeling that someone or something is watching you? I kept on having the feeling that I was being followed. Not by someone but something. Every time I turned around, of course there was no one there.
I get like this in a pitch black cemetery. My imagination starts to get the better of me. Afterall, I'm surrounded on all sides by grave stones. There's dead bodies under the ground here!!
Oh well, time to skeedaddle!!
09/03/04 - One Dead T. canicularis Found at St. Patrick Cemetery - Lowell, MA.
11:30 am - Back again this today. This is probably going to be the last day for me to obtain specimens as I feel I've got a lot of data to start building up the remaining pages. Besides, it's getting cooler now (winter is coming early it seems) and I need to do work on my driveway which will take a few weeks to do. Plus I'll need to get the snow blower ready for the winter season. After all, this was supposed to be only a hobby!!
At the cemetery today I have to take a wide survey of St. Patrick's in order to find any Cicadas. I find another Tibicen canicularis female on a pine tree that I visit regularly still in the process of emerging. I also finally found a dead female Tibicen canicularis under another pine tree. She obviously had mated and laid her eggs somewhere because she died with her ovipositor exposed.
Very interesting because the females that I had that laid eggs in captivity didn't die with their ovipositors exposed. I read somewhere that a female may even die with her ovipositor still inserted into a tree twig. With the ovipositor exposed this tells me that this may have happened to this female as well.
Hrmm, I wonder if it would be possible to disect this female to see if any eggs still remain within. The same can be done with the females that laid egss in captivity. I may have to try this nor or mabe as an experiment next year.
With regards to the live female which I discovered in the process of molting, I left her for about an hour. When I came back to retrieve her she wasn't in the immediate area of her exuvium. I looked approximately 10 feet up and discovered her makeing her way up the side of the pine tree even before her wings were fully expanded. I've never seen this before!
Cicadas usually stay within the relative area of their exuvium and wait till their wings fully expand before they move anywhere. The whole process uses a lot of energy.
I don't know if it was because it was a windy day today and her wings were blowing freely and she was trying to get out of the wind so they would develop properly. Another possibility is maybe she felt a bit too exposed and wanted to seek safety by the way of height from predators.
This may explain why some cicadas that I have discovered mid-molt that when I went back to check on their progress they too were gone despite the fact that not enough time had passed in order to complete the entire molt process.
Suffice it to say I was able to retrieve this female by using a rather long stick. I put her in a specimen jar where she finished her molt process. She is no in the terrarium with the other females. I'm still hearing lots of Tibicen canicularis in the trees. Very few Tibicen lyricen are calling now.
