Deformed Cicadas Found Today

Deformed Cicadas Found Today

I found several exuvia again today at St. Patrick cemetery but no live specimens. There seems to be a mixture of both T. canicularis and T. lyricen though. I will have to check another area.

First Deformed Cicada found at Pine Crest Cemetery - Chelmsford

Seems to be a lot of exuvia here at Pine Crest cemetery. I found a total of 6 exuvia today. One was on a pine tree and several on different hardwood trees. Some of the exuvia were on the backs of Maple leaves.

I also found a deformed T. lyricen today. Unfortunately it was still alive. They can live for many hours like this all the while struggling in vane to get free. When I took it home, even my girlfriend felt sorry for it and she hates Cicadas. She asked me to euthanize it or try to get it out of its skin. I told her it didn't work that way and that I would probably do more damage to it. I told her that it wasn't like peeling a hard-boiled egg and that it probably would never fly anyway.

You can read about my theories on why some Cicadas get deformed by reading the Cicada Deformities page.

What I'm going to do this year I think is try to find Cicada specimens from other places other than St. Patrick Cemetery in Lowell. While I don't intend on collecting more specimens, I may just keep them long enough to note any morphological peculiarities then release them.