Cicada Journals May 31st 2008 - Brood XIV

05/31/08 - More To Report From Cape Cod.

Today was another productive day on Cape Cod. I arrived in the Mashpee area on Park Road and my friend Lisa had 10 Magicicada tenerals waiting for me. We spent several hours today walking around her neighborhood noting where Magicicadas were emerging. I managed to snap a ton of photos. Rather than posting individual thumbnail links to larger photos for you to click on, I decided to put a slideshow together. Click the thumbnail above and to the left to launch the show. This slide show is in .wmv format so you will need a compatible player to view it. It's approximately 2 minutes and 55 seconds long. If you are on a slow connection it would probably be better to just download the show to your computer by right-clicking and choosing "Save Target As". I hope you enjoy it.

Many Data Points Collected Today

With Lisa as my trusty Navigator, we were able to cover parts of Barnstable, Sandwich, Mashpee and Cotuit adding both positive and negative Magicicada sightings. If you are on Cape Cod we are still missing areas east of Hyannis and in the Southern Parts of Falmouth. So if you are from the areas outside the documented range or even in areas where we missed please report your Brood XIV sightings.

Also, still nothing reported from Plymouth County. If you are residing in Plymouth please check in!

Many More Specimens Collected.

I collected approximately 20 males and 20 female specimens and brought them back to North Chelmsford, Ma. A place well out of their range. While I didn't collect enough to start a new brood, I want to see if I can coax the males to start singing. So far no luck. Once they start, I think I'll mix the males and females together to witness mating. Last year similar experiments were performed during the Brood XIII Emergence in the mid west. One thing that was noticed is that when males are in close proximity with each other they will actually try to mate!

Many More Data Points Added To the Maps

Sorry for the delay with launching updated maps but the datapoints are coming in in vast quantities, I personally like to verify each and every one to make sure the data is valid before adding them to the map, that is why it is taking me a little longer than usual. Click the links to the left under "Brood XIV In Massachusetts!" Or click here for the Brood XIV National Map or here for the Massachusetts Only Map.