08 de maio de 2023

2023 Magicicada Straggler Alert!

Spring is in full swing, and with the big double emergence coming up next year of Magicicada broods XIII (17-year, Chicago area) and XIX (13-year, southeast US), we are fixin' to see a lot of stragglers...those unlucky cicadas who lose track of time and emerge off-cycle, generally doomed to a short and lonely adulthood. Stragglers are of interest to Magicicada researchers because they can provide clues as to how the cicadas mark time (or lose count of the years) and to how the broods may be accelerating, decelerating, or changing their boundaries.

I created the 2023 Magicicada Stragglers project to collect observations of Magicicada emerging off-cycle in 2023. We've already got 40 observations at the time of writing, representing at least four broods: X, XIII, XIX, and XXII, with a "mystery cicada" here and there. Stragglers are expected to emerge through May and into mid-June (especially in northern states, where they'll come out a bit later), so keep an eye and ear out for them, and happy iNatting!

Posted on 08 de maio de 2023, 03:28 PM by weecorbie weecorbie | 0 comentários | Deixar um comentário

31 de março de 2021

Brood X Cicadas: 2021

Right now, at this very minute, billions of cicada nymphs are snug in their tunnels, just waiting for the warm spring night when they'll emerge from the ground, shed their skins, unfurl their wings, fly, sing, mate, lay eggs, and die. It's a spectacular phenomenon, and we in the eastern United States are lucky to see it.

Thanks to iNaturalist and the power of citizen science, we now have the opportunity to create the most complete and detailed map in history of a periodical cicada emergence. Although all of the observations of periodical cicadas on iNaturalist provide valuable data, I've put together a project (https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/brood-x-cicadas-2021) to collect the observations that go a step further, including photos or sounds that enable species-level identification of individual cicadas or choruses.

This data and genus-level observations of Magicicada for 2021 will be pooled with records from Cicada Safari, a free smartphone app developed by Dr. Gene Kritsky* and the Center for IT engagement at Mount St. Joseph University in Cincinnati, Ohio (cicadasafari.org).

Ideal observations for this project should include photos of the underside of the cicada. We all love to get that beautiful photo of an unmolested cicada perched on a branch with the morning dew beading its gossamer wings, but that's not gonna help with species ID. We need to see that cicada belly! (Lateral views are also helpful.) Species are differentiated by orange markings that appear on the abdomen and pronotum:

Magicicada septendecim: orange patch behind the eye; orange pleura; orange bands on abdomen that are about half the width of each segment
Magicicada cassinii: no orange anywhere on the body; all black
Magicicada septendecula: narrow orange bands on abdomen, about one-third to one-quarter the width of each segment; no orange on pronotum or pleura

Sounds are also useful for species-level ID, especially if you can get one male singing on its own.

Observations will be added to the project automatically if they meet its criteria, but if you join, you'll be in the loop to see journal posts and get updates on cicada sightings. Thanks in advance for all your contributions!

*Full disclosure: he's my husband. :)

Posted on 31 de março de 2021, 09:30 PM by weecorbie weecorbie | 0 comentários | Deixar um comentário

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