A Vist to Hazardville, CT

A Vist to Hazardville, CT

Update 3/21/11: The species name formerly known as Tibicen chloromera has been changed to Tibicen tibicen. The article has been edited to reflect this change.

Other than finding that rogue T. chloromera T. tibicen in my back yard on August 10, 2005 calling in the trees, I have been unsuccessful in finding T. chloromera T. tibicen cicadas in Massachusetts. As mentioned yesterday I was thinking about trying to track T. chloromera's T. tibicen's northern most range to see if it can be heard here. Well at least along the southern border between Masachusetts and Connecticut anyway.

But alas, I didn't find evidence of them calling here in Massachusetts. I spent the whole day in the southern part of Massachusetts driving along Route 20 heading west. I then hooked up with Route 19 and headed south into Connecticut then continued west on Route 190. I stopped several places in Connecticut like Somers, Somersville and Hazardville. Then I crossed the Connecticut River and started heading north back into Massachusetts.

I went as far west as Agawam Mass and stopped at a cemetery to check for exuvia . I did find many. There was an unusual exit hole no doubt from a cicada just under a pine tree. This hole is approximately 3/8 inch in diameter. What is unusual about this exit hole is the different colored - almost blonde colored - soil all around the hole. Compare it to the rest of the soil outside this blonde area.

This is indicative of Magicicadas making turrets and kind of "frothing up" the soil around their exit holes. I documented this when I went to West Viriginia earlier this year to investigate Brood X Magicicada stragglers.

I started to head east again and went through Longmeadow, East Longmeadow, Monson, Wales and Palmer, Mass. Stopping every so often along the way. I found many signs of exuvia in these towns, Mostly T. lyricen and T. canicularis which was heard everywhere I went. The range of these two species is quite extensive.

A Discovery In Hazardville Connecticut

One of the places I went in Connecticut was the Hazardville Cemetery. I did find some rather exceptionally large exuvia. Now these looked to me to be T. chloromera T. tibicen but I was there at a time when T. chloromera T. tibicen does not sing during the day. So it is anyone's guess as to which species these two exuvia come from. I do still have them however, maybe someone someday will be able to tell me.

This area does look promising for T. chloromera T. tibicen because of its close proximity to the Connecticut River. I may have to venture here to Hazardville with Mike this Thursday for another look.

On another note, I did manage to find a T. canicularis molting at around 1:30 pm. As I mention in the section of this web site on How To Catch Cicadas, this proves that you can hunt for them at any time. Click the thumbnails above to enlarge.