Cicada Journals July 6 to July 7, 2005
07/06/05 - Not Much to Report Today Due to Lousy Weather.
I decided to stay home today because of the lousy weather outside. This gave me some time to study my three Tibicen lyricen specimens that I have found so far. The T. lyricen var. englehardti female is really darkening up now but I want to take some more close up shots of her but I want to wait for the sun to shine so that I can take some shots of her in full sunlight but that won't be happening for a while if this weather keeps up. I currently have them in a terrarium that I purchased last year on ebay. It's basically an octagon fish tank with some dirt and charcoal and stones on the bottom. Then I have a branch from a lilac bush in a jar of water. The Cicadas seem to be happily feeding. I plan on releaseing these specimens. I hope they last long. But before I do that I want to document by photographing them to note any difference in morphology in the even I find other Cicadas to compare them to.
Anyway,
as promised, I have snapped another ventral view shot for you to have a
look at with regards to T. lyricen pruinosity development that
I talked about yesterday. Compare the shot to the left with the ventral
shot I took last night. This is just after 12 hours. As you can see, the
white waxy stuff is really starting to develop. As you can see, there is
still a pinkish hue and the operculum (oh-perk-yoo-lum) is just starting
to develop the pruinosity at it's edges. The operculum are the bony plates
you can see on the abdomen. These cover the male Cicada's timbals which
he uses to make sounds with. Hopefully, over time the pruinosity will increase.
Note the pinkish hue on the sternites, the banded segments of the abdomen.
These will turn completely white. More tomorrow.
07/07/06 - Many Tibicen lyricen Cicadas at St. Patrick Cemetery!
11:00 am - This is really surprising. It's really a cloudy, cool and overcast day. It's 60 degrees outside. Despite that I found several different specimens in all parts of the cemetery here. All seem to be on Ash trees as well which I think is T. lyricen's preferred host plant. At least here in Massachusetts. It also looks like I can take back what I said about the Ash trees last year. That they may not be producing Cicadas this year. All the Ash trees that produced Cicadas last year are indeed producing Tibicen lyricen Cicadas this year. See some of the images below.
What's really surprising is that one of these Ash trees is totally dead. I noticed it was dying last year but this year there is no new leaf growth at all. This is the same Ash tree that produced several deformed T. lyricens and T. canicularis specimens also. This year however, I did find 4 exuvia on this tree with two eclosing T. lyricen Cicadas on it, one male and one female. The female teneral looks like an usually dark shade of blue as opposed to pinkish in the teneral stage. See some of the images below.
While watching one of these T. lyricens during the eclosing process, I spied a newly emerged nymph crawling up the side of one of the Ash trees. Problem is, I was watching this particular T. lyricen molting and came back to check on it an hour later, and there was the nymph. It must've emerged from the ground without me noticing it. That's one thing I'd love to film and observe is an actually nymph emerging from the ground. Sorry I missed it.
Today I saw 7 total specimens in the cemetery. I took four of them home with me for study including the nymph. Below is a set of thumbnails that link to bigger pictures of this Tibicen lyricen nymph going through the eclose process on a Dogwood tree in my yard. This specimen turned out to be female and with a whole tree to herself to eclose, no where on the main stem of the tree was good enough. It ended up fully eclosing on the back of a leaf about 4 feet from the ground. It was tough getting shots of the process. Hope you enjoy them.
Below is the complete molting process of the T. lyricen nymph. I took it home and let it eclose on a Dogwood tree in my yard.
Top Images from left to right: Tibicen lyricen nymph ready to eclose. Note the seam forming down the length of its back. This is where it will split and the new teneral will emerge. | The Tibicen lyricen nymph climbs a tree to find the perfect spot in which to molt. | The Tibicen lyricen nymph settles down on the back of a leaf to molt approximately 4 feet above the ground.
Top Images from left to right: Tibicen lyricen splits its nymphal skin and starts to emerge. | Tibicen lyricen nymph continues to wriggle free. | Tibicen lyricen nymph hangs up-side-down. It will stay this way for at least 45 minutes. From this angle, it is a female.
Top Images from left to right: Newly emerged Tibicen lyricen rights itself and and the wings start to expand. | Nearly complete. | The completed wings now all they have to do is fold in against the body. | Front (dorsal) view of completed wings.
Top Images from left to right: The molt process is complete. Wings fully expanded and folded against the body. | The same adult female several days later.
07/07/06 - Another Ventral View of Tibicen lyricen male specimen.
And
yet, here's another ventral view of the Tibicen lyricen that I got on the
5th of July at 11:00 pm at night at St. Patrick cemetery. Compare this to
the day before. As you can see, the Pruinosity is still developing quite
nicely. It's a little thicker because its whiter. Note the sternites and
operculum.
It's a really cool day today. However, I'm going stir-crazy so I think I'll head on over to St. Patrick Cemetery to see whats up. I really need to start to travel to other areas to see if I can find other sources of Cicadas.
