Cicada Journals August 27, 2004 to August 31, 2004
08/27/05 - More Variations Noted in T. canicularis - Home - No. Chelmsford, MA.
I stayed home today to do more work on the web site. I spent the day taking dorsal and ventral pictures of the six Cicadas I obtained yesterday in order to document size and color variations.
I took some nice outside shots of the same 6 Cicadas then all 6 were released.
Look at the last picture in the series. I snapped the picture just when this male T. canicularis was leaping to take flight, note the position of the legs.
08/30/04 - Another Female Oviposits at Home - No. Chelmsford, MA.
I was just about ready to head out the door to check St. Patrick cemetery again but I decided to stop first and check the Cicadas in my new terrarium. I discovered a female ovipositing in the lilac branch. I looked around for the male to see if he was still alive. I couldn't find him anywhere. I took a couple movie clips and some pictures of the female ovipositing. Check them out to the left.
I noticed that she rested a few times in between ovipositing. I finally did discover the male Cicada alive and well. I picked him up and discovered that he was still quite rambunctious. I put him on the lilac branch to feed. The ovipositing female has been laying eggs for about 1/2 hour and is still going strong even though she rests a few times in between.
I am wondering if the male and female mated as previous or is the female laying unfertilized eggs? I may have to isolate some females and observe any oviposition without males being present.
If they did mate and the male is still alive then maybe males have the ability to mate with more than one female? I will need to conduct careful experiments for next year.
08/30/04 - Other Notable Insects At St. Patrick Cemetery - Lowell, MA.
I left the house while the female mentioned above was still ovipositing in the terrarium. I was hoping to find some T. lyricen Cicadas today. I wasn't interested in collecting any other specimens. Unfortunately, I didn't find a single molting Cicada. Not even a T. canicularis.
I decided to try to record the T. canicularis and T. lyricens singing in the trees but they didn't come out at all unfortunately. I looked for signs of Cicadas on nearly all the trees in the cemetery today.
With the exception of finding a few exuvia, there was nothing else. Today seemed ideal too because it is in the high 80's and humid as hell.
I did take pictures of other insects for you to enjoy however. The first up is known as a Planthopper from the Flatidae Family. What's interesting about this insect is that it is of the same sub-order as Cicadas. That is they are of the Homoptera order. The reason for this is that they too have membranous wings and rest them in "Roof-like" fashion along their body as well as suck the xylem of plants to feed.
The next picture is of a dead beetle that I found. For now, I'm not sure of it's species but it's pretty darn big about an inch and a half long and about a half inch to three quarters wide.
Next is a picture of a true locust (a winged grasshopper.) As you can see this is what a Cicada is often mis-identified as being. Check the FAQ's to the left to learn more about locusts and why Cicadas have been referred to as these.
Here's something else you don't see every day. Check out the last two pictures below. Two people picnicing in the cemetery under a tree. To be honest I could think of a lot better places that are pretty close to have a picnic. Oh well, they're probably on their lunch break.
The look to be in their 60's. I wonder if they use that Kayac on the roof of their van?
08/30/04 - Home - North Chelmsford, MA.
2:30 pm - Back home and I was amazed to discover that the female Cicada observed earlier in the day was still ovipositing!! I watched her intently for a half hour. She stopped around 3 pm. She tried to fly away but only ended up at the bottom of the terrarium.
I examined her closely. She seemed to still have some spunk in her. I decided to mark the tip of her wing with red fingernail polish so that I could tell her apart from the other females and to track how long it would take for her to expire.
When I put her back in the terrarium she started feeding on the Lilac branch. I wanted to hopefully witness the other females ovipositing. The male was feeding happily on the Lilac branch as well.
While I was observing their behavior, all-of-a-sudden a fine stream of Cicada pee came shooting out of the tip of the abdomen in a fine jet stream. I just witnesed the male Cicada peeing!! Shortly thereafter a different female did the same thing!! Oh well, I guess when you gotta go you gotta go!!
As I was observing the Cicadas, I did notice the darker female start to oviposit briefly. It seemed to me that perhaps she was testing the viability of the branch she wished to lay her eggs in? This is jsut a possible hypothesis based purely on observation alone.
6:00 pm - The female that I marked has been feeding for several hours. She managed to make her way to the same section of the Lilac branch where she laid eggs earlier in the day and started ovipositing again!! She only did this for a half hour though. I estimate that she must've laid at least 600 eggs!!
All the Cicadas including the male seemed to be alive and well by the time I turned in for the evening.
08/31/05 - Home - North Chelmsford, MA.
I checked the terrarium today. The dark female that oviposited briefly last evening has expired. However this doesn't mean that she didn't oviposit for as long as the other female that I marked, it just means that I didn't observe her. She may have oviposited as many eggs as the other female. It's just that I wasn't there to witness it.
The male and the female that I marked still seem to be alive and well. This is strange because at least 24 hours have passed and they are still alive. Only the dark female has expired.
I am having doubts as to whether or not this female mated with the male. It may be that females still go through with ovipositing without mating like female Periodical Cicadas, it's just that the eggs are not viable.
I will have to conduct an experiment where I leave one female in the terrarium on her own to observe if she oviposits or not. No males must be present. Eliminating the presense of males will definately solve the question of viability and if female Tibicens oviposit without mating.
The female would have to be obtained as a teneral in order to assure that the female hadn't mated prior to being captured. It should be easy enough to obtain a female.
