Latest Cicada News
Beware Brood XIX Zombie Cicadas!
These Brood XIX periodical cicada will take their stylets and instead of tapping into xylem, they will tap into your skull and suck out your brains!!! Just kidding. Like their red-eyed counter-parts they are just as harmless. But these cicadas with the milky white eyes; (sometimes also blue or grey) are actually quite rare as far as periodical cicadas go.
These cicadas differ greatly from the normal red-eyed - orange wing veined variety by their shockingly light eyes and white costal-margin ve
Date Posted: 2011-05-24 Comments: (0) Category: Cicada General Info
How to label your cicada/insect specimens.
With this year's Brood XIX periodical cicada emergence happening in the south, I thought it would be useful to offer some suggestions on the methods that I use to label cicada specimens collected in the field. I would assume that a lot of you out there would probably be doing the same thing. That is, collecting specimens but actually don't know the best way to label or catalogue them. And, actually you could use this article along with the "How to Preserve Your Cicadas - Pinning" article to help
Date Posted: 2011-05-13 Comments: (3) Category: Cicada How To
Brood XIX Distribution Map is Now Live.
Finally we've managed to launch this year's Brood XIX periodical cicada distribution map. Eventually, there will be maps for all the different broods of periodical cicadas for you to view. The map so far contains Brood XIX reports that users have submitted via the Report Brood XIX Periodical Cicadas report form. If you are seeing any periodical cicadas, kindly take a moment to fill in the form. Every data point helps us in updating old and out-dated distribution information on these cicadas.
Ho
Date Posted: 2011-05-04 Comments: (9) Category: Cicada General Info
First Brood XIX Sighting Reports.
It looks like the Brood XIX periodical cicada emergence is underway. We have sighting reports coming in from Georgia, South Carolina and Alabama. The areas surrounding Atlanta on the Piedmont Plateau seems to be experiencing heavy activity already. Special thanks to Bill Reynolds of the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences for supplying the early data. Below is a breadown of the following areas:
Columbia County in Georgia 10 miles west of Augusta
Immatures: none
Nymphs: none
Date Posted: 2011-04-25 Comments: (4) Category: Cicada General Info
Get Ready for Brood XIX!
Hey folks. Welcome to the start of another cicada season. The only difference is, 2011 will be a year for a periodical cicadas emergence. In fact from now, all the way to 2021, somewhere in the United States, a periodical cicada brood will make an appearance.
In 2008, Massachusetts Cicadas spent a lot of time on Cape Cod because in that year, Brood XIV periodical cicadas made an appearance. As with previous brood emergences, Massachusetts Cicadas has been involved in a rather large effort to ma
Date Posted: 2011-03-30 Comments: (4) Category: Cicada General Info
More Cicada Survey Work in Concord N.H.
I returned once again today to try my luck with catching an Okanagana rimosa cicada at the Concord Pine Barrens along Pembroke Rd. I am happy to report that after several failed attempts I was finally successful at snagging one of the little buggers! I managed to catch a singing specimen in a low Aspen tree. The tree was approximately 10 feet tall with a very thin trunk. I was able to grab the trunk and bend it slowly and gently so as not to stress the tree or disturb the cicada. When the cicada
Date Posted: 2010-06-20 Comments: (0) Category: Cicada General Info
Okanagana rimosa Found in Concord New Hampshire
Hey, remember back on June 11th of this year I researched a possible new site for O. rimosa based on pine barren habitat that looked promising? It was an area in Concord, New Hampshire underneath some power lines along Pembroke Rd. I went there that day to do some investigating based on habitat experience for the species but the day was overcast and cool with no signs of O. rimosa anywhere. As I mentioned in that article, I would probably need to return on a nice hot day in order to confirm thei
Date Posted: 2010-06-19 Comments: (0) Category: Cicada Missions
The Hunt for Okanagana with Elias
Back in 2007 when I discovered Okanagana in Massachusetts I was excited and had to tell my good friend Elias - who's from New York - all about the area and habitat. Elias and I met through email correspondence when he discovered Massachusetts Cicadas during the Brood XIII Periodical cicada emergence back in June of 2007. Since then, whenever cicada season rolls around we are in constant contact with each other discussing cicadas and bouncing ideas off of each other as to where to look for specie
Date Posted: 2010-06-14 Comments: (0) Category: Cicada Projects
A Possible New Location for Okanagana rimosa?
Given my recent successes with finding Okanagana rimosa in New Hampshire and Massachusetts and developing a familiararity with habitat types for the species, I have decided that I would try to locate other similar habitats. It would seem that O. rimosa in New England prefers a sandy soil environment consisting of pitch pine, scrub oak and other deciduous-type trees with abundant blueberry plants.
While O. rimosa has been reported in Bedford and Concord, Ma.; (from old literature) as well a
Date Posted: 2010-06-11 Comments: (0) Category: Cicada Projects