T. canicularis Heard Calling Today

T. canicularis Heard Calling Today

I went out Cicada hunting today. It was quiet all day wherever I went. I get back home after a dismal day of Cicada hunting around 4:00 pm and right in my own yard a Tibicen canicularis was calling for a mate in a big White Birch tree in my yard. I haven't found any signs of T. canicularis yet but it is clear that T. canicularis and T. lyricen must emerge about the same time, maybe T. canicularis by a week or so earlier. Still no T. lyricen calls yet (just as I figured.)

As promised the thumbnail to the left is a dorsal view shot of the female Tibicen lyricen var. engelhardti I obtained yesterday at St. Patrick cemetery. This is a sub species of the regular Tibicen lyricen. Note the extremely dark color with a very black pronotal collar and an "anchor" shape in the center of the pronotum. Also mesonotum almost completely black. It took a while for me to get just the right shot. My camera is just a point-and-shoot camera so I took about 30 pictures and this was the best one that I liked of them all.

This specimen was very uncoopertive to photograph so I ended up chilling it for a few minutes so that I could take these shots. This is standard practice when trying to photograph an uncooperative insect. It was still for about 5 to 7 minutes then was back to itself again after that. Here's a somewhat blurry lateral view.

On a side note while walking around, I like to snap pictures of other flora and fauna just for fun. While I was trying to snap a picture of a bumble bee on a purple flower, I noticed right below them was this garter snake curled up in a ball among the leaves of this plant. I've never noticed this behavior before for garter snakes as you usually find them under rocks and logs. I've never seen one curled up like this. Perhaps it was hoping for an easy meal of an insect that happened to come by. Garter snakes are non-poisonous snakes but I didn't want to disturb this fella.