Cicada Journals July 18 to July 21, 2005

07/18/05 - Death at Chez Gerry's!!

Death I just don't understand it, I checked the Cicadas today, I had five total live specimens, including the Tibicen lyricen var. engelhardti female that I collected back on July 4th. I inspected the terrarium today and found that all my specimens are dead!! Even the new Tibicen canicularis and Tibicen lyricen male that I collected on the 16th at Fairview cemetery in Westford and the new Tibicen lyricen that I got on the 15th in the evening at Pine Crest Cemetery. All of them dead, dead, dead, dead, dead!

Man, that really bums me out. I'm trying to document the different morphologies in Tibicen cicadas but I can't use dead specimens, their colors have a tendancy to change in death. I'm really sad about the var. engelhardti cicada as well as she has lived the longest in captivity 14 days. I don't know if you have ever tried to keep specimens alive in captivity before but it is quite difficult.

Ok, it's been really really hot lately, especially today but I always make sure the cicadas have a fresh source of food, usually a branch from our lilac bush in our yard that sits in a mason jar full of water. They were happily feeding on it the night before but today, they are all dead. I don't understand why heat should be a factor though, Cicadas love the heat, after all, they are also known as "Heat Bugs" for heaven's sake. Maybe it has something to do with poor air flow or something? It's as if they have all been poisoned.

Now I'll have to start from scratch, I really can't get much data from dead specimens.

7/19/05 - The Hunt Begins Again

OK, that really bums me out that all my specimens have died. So that means I need to get more for live behavioral observations. I think what I'm going to do is comletely clean out my terrarium, new dirt and the whole ball of wax, hopefully, I can wipe out whatever is killing my cicadas.

I went many places today, but unfortunately, I didn't find a single live specimen. Here's a breakdown of where I went in reverse order:

12:00 PM - Triangle Store Cemetery - North Chelmsford.

Ok, I don't remember the name of the cemetery, but it's right next to "The Triangle Store" the reason they call it that is because it is in between where two roads fork. One is Route 40 and I can't remember what the name of the other road is. Here I found several exvuia but no live specimens. Man, its really hot today.

11:00 AM - Pine Grove Cemetery, Westford.

I decide to head over to this Pine Grove Cemetery to investigate the Cicada killers that the boys of Westford Cemetery Department told me about. Sure enough there were many. However, I couldn't snap a photo because they wouldn't land long enough to take photos. I may head back later today hopefully they will have settled down.

My Observation of these Cicada Killers:

I believe these Cicada Killers that I spotted are of the Sphecius speciosus species variety. There seems to be many of them in this one area. I believe both males and females are here.

The males seem to be territorial. One Cicada Killer in particular seemed to be guarding a patch of land it had staked out by patrolling back and forth. I was hoping it would land so that I could get a photo but it really didn't land at all. I noticed whenever another Cicada Killer would enter its area, it would chase it off. Other times, bigger cicada killers would enter its area (I assume these to be female) and it would try to join with it in mid flight but the female wasn't having any part of that. Maybe too early for mating?

To confirm my observations, I emailed Professor Chuck Holliday of the Department of Biology at Lafayette College in Easton, PA. this was his response:

Thanks Gerry:

You have described perfectly the behavior of male Sphecius speciosus. If you email me the date you saw the wasps I’ll be able to enter your report in our database.

Thanks Again!

Chuck Holliday

A very nice guy and man, does he know Cicada Killers. These wasps are truely facinating. To learn more about Cicada Killer wasps please visit Prof. Chuck Holliday's Cicada-Killer Page. He's doing some really interesting research.

7/21/05 - So What is This? Grand Central Station?

9:00 PM - Fairview Cemetery - Westford Ma. It's been dead here (pun intended) all day. I mean no one visited the cemetery during the day because it was just way too hot. But it is now after dark and the place is being visited by high school aged teenagers probably looking to party quietly or just to neck.

Even the police have been in here patrolling. I'm surprised the police didn't say anything to me though. After all, I'm walking around in a dark cemetery shining my flashlight up into the trees. Man, sometimes looking for cicadas must be a really weird thing to be doing (at least to other people).

It is very hot and humid and the sweat is just pouring off of me while I'm doing my rounds. I find a Tibicen canicularis underneath an overhanging pine tree branch about 3 feet above the ground. My second night visit and it looks like it is going to pay off. It really amazes me how small Tibicen canicularis cicadas are. You can get a rough idea of its size by looking at the pine needles. The body is only about 25 millimeters long but yet, the call of this male once fully mature will be very loud. Here's more pics of this specimen below:

A short time later, I discover a Tibicen lyricen nymph also settling down to molt. It is in a type of tree I do not recognize. The tree seems to be very small in stature so I assume it is only a few years old. I also discover other cast off exuvia in this tree as well. They all seem to be in the low branches of the canopy underneath small leaves. I will need to find out what species of tree this is. Here's more pics of this specimen during the eclose process.

This definately seems to be a good time to be out looking for cicadas but man the mosquitos are very bad tonight. I'm glad I got some mosquito repellant with me. Here's more pics of that T. lyricen in the strange tree:

Uh oh, someone is coming in a car. The car pulls up beside me and it is a young high school aged couple. They spot me with my flashlight and here come the questions again. I'm always glad to talk about cicadas so I launch into what I am doing.

They seemed fascinated and THIS time I have props to show them. The girl seems really interested when I show them the molting T. canicularis and T. lyricen cicadas. I told them about the life cycle of cicadas and they seemed totally amazed. I even gave the girl a cast off nymphal shell that I showed her and she seemed very pleased. All in all a very good visit. I told them to watch out for the police as they were in patrolling earlier. Hey, I was a kid once too you know?

Well, after sending them on their merry way I found an additional Tibicen canicularis nymph on a pine tree. So I decide to take this specimen for molting in the terrarium. I still haven't figured out what caused all my Cicadas to die suddenly on the 18th of July. I also found another T. lyricen cicada just about finished eclosing. This guy was just a foot off the ground on a crabapple tree.

I ended up staying a total of 3 hours tonight while waiting for three cicadas to finish the eclose process. I ended up with 2 T. canicularis males, a female Tibicen lyricen and a male Tibicen lyricen. All of these specimens with the exception of the T. canicularis will be photographed and released.

7/21/05 - The Big Bad Wasps In Westford Massachusetts

3:00 PM - Pine Grove Cemetery - Westford, Ma. Ok, I'm back again to see if I can snap a few pictures of these Cicada Killer Wasps. It's later in the day and hopefully they won't be as active. Sure enough I sucessfully photographed a male perching on a bush. I find these wasps quite facinating. While they are very large 1 - 2 inches long, they really seem oblivous to my presence. They are buzzing all around me and I'm right in the thick of them.

I'm really not the least bit fearful of them. They don't seem interested in chasing me away or anything. I can't really tell the difference between males and females yet so I sent the below pictures to my friend Professor Chuck Holliday at Lafayette College in Easton Pennsylvania who was gracious enough in identifying it as a male Sphecius speciosus Cicada Killer which is common in the eastern part of the United States.

Help Me Help the Professor

No, this isn't like Gilligan helping the professor make a radio from bananas and coconuts this is a "for real" side-project. One of the projects that Professor Holliday is working on is a distribution map of the different Cicada Killer Wasps species within the United States. So naturally your's truely has offered to lend a helping hand.

If you live in New England here is a breakdown of the counties and other information that the Professor is missing and needs the information. This is a quote from Professor Holliday:

What an offer, Gerry! I’ll certainly take you up on it.

We lack records from the following counties in MA: Berkshire, Essex, Franklin, Hampden, Nantucket, Norfolk, Suffolk, Worcester.

Any Sphecius (or pictures) and, particularly, cicadas taken by Sphecius, from these counties would be greatly appreciated. If you get up into Vermont or New Hampshire (can you get there from here? Old joke – sorry.), reports/pics and cicadas would also be appreciated. We have nothing from VT and only one county from NH.

I have a theory that the spring “mud season” in VT, NH and ME makes standing water so deep at the surface of the ground that it floods the wasps’ burrows and that’s why they don‘t occur in VT, ME and only in southern NH.

Thanks again!

Chuck

So there you have it. Again, if you are from New England and especially those counties: Berkshire, Essex, Franklin, Hampden, Nantucket, Norfolk, Suffolk or Worcester counties you can drop me an email by clicking here. Or use the Email Me" link below and to the left under "Contact Me". Please provide the following information:

The county you saw them in.
The town or city you saw them in.
Actual location of the Cicada Killers.
Time of day.
Date you saw them.
Pictures if possible.
If possible cicada specimens taken by Cicada Killer females.

Below are pictures of a Sphecius speciosus for your reference. I hope to obtain additional information like maybe movies and hopefully witness a Cicada killer digging a burrow and catching and bringing cicadas to it. That would be cool huh?

See the Cicada Killers In New England in the left hand navigation panel under Special Projects? Well, that is eventually going to be a link to a special page later this week with further details about Cicada Killers and how to study them and obtain cicadas so please check the site regularly. Anyway, enjoy the pictures and thanks in advance for your help.