Cicada Journals October 2006
10/01/06 - The End of the Cicada Season in the Northeast.
Well folks, sorry for no updates for September of '06 but there was really not much to report. It seemed that for New England, there really wasn't all that much going on. The weather here turned cooler around the third week of August right after my trip to Martha's Vineyard and it steadily declined from there.
Not to mention my regular 9 to 5 job has really kept me quite busy. It's not like previous years when I was off doing my own thing and didn't have to worry about work. During those times I was constantly out hunting cicadas. With work, my time is extremely limited.
Fortunately however, I still have lots of distribution data to add to my database and also several new species to add to the Morphologies in Tibicen cicadas section so there will still be updates this year for the winter months.
However, a couple of noteable things did happen towards the end of August and into September of '06 that I have been holding off on posting. Read below for details.
Two Additional Sightings of Tibicen chloromera in Massachusetts.
August 20, 2006 Sighting
John Cooley of University of Connecticut at Storrs sent in an email indicating he heard a T. chloromera calling in Cambridge, Ma. around Harvard Square from a Walnut tree. Normally, I would discount this report but John Cooley and I have been out together studying T. chloromera in Connecticut previously. Not to mentioin John has published many-a-paper on cicadas so I will take his report as valid.
September 9, 2006 Sighting
As you may or may not know, T. chloromera in Massachusetts is quite rare. Most have been chalked up to being satellite males coming up from the south looking for new territory. I reported last year that there was a T. chloromera calling in my yard. I managed to get a very poor quality recording which I had confirmed by John Cooley and John Zyla of Cicadas.info.
Well, this year I'd like to officially report a second record of a T. chloromera in my neighborhood! It started at a church on Middlesex Road just south of my house. It was running virtually in a straight line heading north towards the Southern N.H. border following the road which runs parallel to the Merrimack River.
It flew into my yard, called a few times and kept heading north. I got a good video and sound recording this year.
Click the thumbnail to the left to watch the video. This video was taken directly across the street from my house in my neighbor's yard. So my back is south, this is facing north.
Temperature was in the mid 80's and I started hearing it call at 11:30 am.
That makes 3 documented sightings this year for Massachusetts. One on Martha's Vineyard, one in Cambridge, Ma. by John Cooley and one by yours truly in North Chelsmford, MA. for the second year in a row.
While this is purely speculation on my part, I find it highly coincidental that for the second year in a row I have heard T. choromera in my neighborhood. I am of the mind-set that there must be a small established population close by. It just doesn't make sense to hear them for a second year if these are just satellites passing through. The Merrimack River is close by so I suspect that these T. chloromera are following the river. I think I will have to investigate this theory for next year.
The Cicadas of Kansas
This year was an abundant year for cicadas in Kansas. The cicadas were so plentiful that they were easy to capture because they were just sitting on the ground or under street lights and on very low branches of trees.
Thanks to Joe Tomelleri and his sons who live in Kansas, I received approximately 105 cicadas in August. It took a while for me to identify, pin and label them however. While some still have me confused as to their identity, I have positively identified at least 95 of them. Click the thumbnail to the right to see a representation of the specimens I received.
From left to right in the photo, they are as follows:
- Tibicen auletes
- Tibicen walkeri (Orange)
- Tibicen walkeri (Green)
- Tibicen dorsata
- Tibicen pruinosa
- Tibicen aurifera
However, there may be two additional species that I will need confirmation on. Those two additional species being Tibicen linnei and Tibicen canicularis. The coloration of Tibicen pruinosa is so similar to that of Tibicen canicularis in the mid-west that it is difficult to tell the two apart. Some of the specimens that I am calling T. pruinosa may in fact be T. canicularis, T. linnei or some other sub-species.
I will be keeping the best examples from this collection and will be trading the rest.
The majority of specimens that were obtained were Tibicen pruinosa and Tibicen walkeri. Click the thumbnail to the left for a larger view of the Tibicen walkeri cicadas that I received. I will be adding closeup photos of these specimens to a new page for Tibicen walkeri in the very near future.
Two versions of Tibicen walkeri
Tibicen walkeri cicadas contain a sub species known as T. walkeri var. pronotalis (or T. pronotalis) depending on your preference. Taxonomic designation can prove to be very difficult however. The reason being is that T. pronotalis is slightly smaller than T. walkeri. Both types contain two main color variations green and orange.
To the extreme left, they can be orange and to the extreme right, they can be green with matching pronotal collar colors. Since both green and orange varieties of T. walkeri can be found in the same location, you get set up with mating pairs reproducing with the resultant adults being any shade of yellow and green in between!
From these T. walkeris that I obtained in Kansas, I have noted green specimens with orange wing veins and orange specimens with green wing veins while others are orange with orange wing veins and still others are green with green wing veins.
It seems that either type (orange or green) is common. Where these cicadas were collected in Kansas, the orange variety being the more common form. Since there is a mixture of both green and orange varieties, these cicadas may not be what is known as "parapatric" which means that their ranges don't overlap. In fact the mating call of T. walkeri males are virtually the same between the orange version and green version.
Upon close examination of the these specimens from Kansas (the orange variety) there do seem to be additional subtle differences.
Pronotums - The pronotums seem to vary in color patterns with some having large black areas and others that have virtually no black at all.
Pruinosity - On the dorsal view, there does seem to be some slight pruinosity on the abdomens while some contain none at all.
Wing veination - Some of the orange varieties have orange wing veins while some are orange with green wing veins and some have a mixture of both orange and green wing veins.
All these variations within T. walkeri may indicate that there may be some cross-breeding going on between the orange and green varieties.
Tibicen walkeri var. pronotalis (T. pronotalis)
Everything mentioned above also seems to apply to T. prontalis with the differences being that they are slightly smaller, have a large black patch located medially on the pronotum and the ranges between the two species do not overlap.
More Cicada Videos and Sound Files Added
Thanks to Roy Troutman for supplying some good quality sound files of Tibicen robinsoniana and Tibicen walkeri. Roy can be found posting information from time to on the Entomology-Cicadidae Group and Cicadamania. These sound files can also be found in the Cicada Videos and Sound files section of the web site. I have been accumulating various calling songs and alarm squawks from all types of cicada species here in the United States.
A special thanks also goes out to Kevin Bonnett. Kevin has provided a link to a Tibicen linnei alarm squawk video he shot last year. Be warned though, this T. linnei has been pounced on by a praying mantis in a tree and could not get away and is quite graphic. You can also find the link to this video in the Cicada Videos and Sound files section of the web site.
New Cicada Gallery Links Added
Also another thanks goes out to Kevin Bonnett who also has several different cicada gallery links. The cicada fans are definately out there and thanks to good search engine optimization, they are finding our web site. You can access Kevin's Cicada Galleries under the Cicada Gallery Web Sites above and to the left. Cicada Gallery 1 is a series of photos of a recently emerged cicada in its teneral form.
Cicada Gallery 2 are still photos of the above mentioned video of the praying mantis eating the Tibicen linnei cicada.
More Reader Submissions Added
Due to my lack of updates, I have accrued 3 additional pages of reader email of sightings of Cicadas and Cicada Killers. Unfortunately, more submissions were received that didn't have pictures so some of these were screened. Some I felt were really important because they asked questions which I thought everyone would like to read and see what the response was.
Keep the submissions coming. Even if there isn't an attached photo, I answer all email questions and inquiries.
Since I have been receiving a lot of email inquiries, I will be configuring an online form which you all can fill out. In this way, I hope to gather additional relevant information which will benefit everyone. Look for an online form to be uploaded during the next update.
