Cicada Journals July 13, 2006
07/13/06 - What a Handsome Fellow! T. canicularis male, up close and personal.
Remember that Tibicen canicularis nymph I discovered on the 7th of July in Pine Crest Cemetery? You remember if you've been reading that that was the evening when the cops were called cuz the neighbor thought they saw a ghost in the cemetery.
Well, he's all grow'd up now. Take a look.
From left to right we have a nice dorsal view, a closeup view of the head which includes the compound eyes, eye stalks, clypeus, labrum and of course the antennae, finally a nice lateral view. Don't let the seemingly large size of these pictures fool you. This guy is very tiny a maximum length of just 42 centimeters!
Off on a Mission!
That's right for the next few days, there won't be any updates. I am planning a trip to West Viriginia to do some mapping of the species there and also to see if I can obtain other specimens. I get rather tired of T. lyricen and T. canicularis. I wish Massachusetts had more variety. So I gotta go where I can get it.
I will be doing experiments also. I currently am having three separate light traps built for the purpose of seeing which type of light better attracts cicadas. I am having light traps made with UV (Black Light) Halogen and Mercury Vapor lights.
Here is an example of a UV light trap that I will be receiving.
From left to right, in the first pic, you can see the overall shape. The theory is that the white portions are designed to deflect (middle pic) the insect into the funnel (end pic) where it will be trapped inside the bucket.
I'll be snapping tons of pictures of the insects and hopefully cicadas.
I should be back on the 20th when I will compile a full report.
