By adamg on Wed., 5/21/2008 - 1:19 pm
Massachusetts Cicadas, now featuring a map showing the locations of those Brood XIV 17-year cicadas (not much there yet, since their awakening is still three days away).
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Comments
Cicada Killers
By Suldog
Wed, 05/21/2008 - 2:07pm
Those interested in another side of the story...
Cicada Killers
There is a link within my entry which will take you to more scientific information.
Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com
Darn
By Eighthman
Wed, 05/21/2008 - 2:46pm
Darn, I almost sent in that map link yesterday, but figured, what the heck.
Cicada killers are cool. As a teen in Maryland, I witnessed a kill in my backyard. Of course, having one of those monster wasps fly into my dorm room scared the crap out of me. I just opened the window wide, turned out the light, and left the room, closing the door. He found his way out.
So how do cicada killers survive ...
By Ron Newman
Wed, 05/21/2008 - 3:37pm
... for the 16 years out of 17 that there are no cicadas to be found?
How they survive
By Allstonian
Wed, 05/21/2008 - 3:54pm
By hunting cicadas. It's hatchlings from a particular brood that are all coming out this summer, but there are 15 total broods, 12 on different 17-year cycles and 3 on a 13-year cycle. Plus there are types of cicada that aren't periodic at all. So there are plenty of cicadas every summer, but there are also these periodic peak years as well.
Just wanted to clarify a bit
By Kaz
Wed, 05/21/2008 - 4:00pm
There is not as much geographic overlap with the different broods even though they are named based on their year of emergence from each other.
The wasps aren't hopping from brood to brood each year, but instead find a primary food source in the annual cicada specie.
More than 1 cicada
By Kaz
Wed, 05/21/2008 - 3:57pm
The Tibicen species of cicada is annually present in North America. These are what cicada killer wasps feed on normally. The 13 and 17 year species of magicicada is said to have developed as a prime number hibernation to avoid matching up with its predators' life cycles (only a 13 or 17 year predator will match up with a 13 or 17 year cicada population). So, there are always cicadas and there are always wasps, but when the 17 year population of cicadas come out, they are usually large in numbers and so more wasps will survive given that there's more food around and you'll be much more likely to notice the wasps and the cicadas than normal.
Said one wasp to another ...
By SwirlyGrrl
Wed, 05/21/2008 - 4:08pm
Hey dude! Like, you should try some of this magicicada especiale brood XIV ... its primo!
As for the annuals, that explains all those back-split empty shell things I've been finding in my garden for years. Most cool as they are about 2" long!
Maybe someone here will know
By Kaz
Wed, 05/21/2008 - 3:20pm
I was trying to explain cicadas to a friend from Rhode Island and he claimed that at the age of 26, he has never seen a cicada in his life.
This baffled me because being from Maryland we would see boatloads of them this time of year when Brood XIV was popping out of the ground. Not only would you get the news stories but you'd hear them outside and see their molts and dead carcasses everywhere.
When I started seeing the stories for this year's reemergence in MA, I figured they had to be well represented from the mid-Atlantic all the way up the coast to here in New England.
So, the catch: Nowhere do I find a "Rhode Island Cicada" group or on some of the predictions it shows which states for which dates...and RI was not one of the listed states...
Wierd, how is RI spared the mystical cicada? Am I missing something, nobody seems to comment on the presence or mysterious absence of Brood XIV cicadas in RI?
Ask him
By Gareth
Wed, 05/21/2008 - 4:46pm
if he's ever seen a locust. Sometimes cicadas are referred to as locusts (as in "7-year locust.") The most evident part is the molted husk. Ask him if he's ever seen a big bug shell stuck to a tree.
Heck, ask him if he's ever seen a tree.
I too am from RI and never
By Rach in RI
Mon, 06/02/2008 - 11:10pm
I too am from RI and never have seen or even heard of a cicada until now,my 8 year old is doing a project on them.
Just for the record, I have heard of locuses but I have never seen one and I'm 33.
Maybe its all the salt air?
the need for feed
By Jenn
Wed, 05/21/2008 - 6:29pm
That site is very cool, lots of information, but I wish I could find an RSS feed of some kind for it so that I knew when it was updated.
One day in 2006 I was late for work because during the night a Tibicen cicada decided that the front left tire of my car was the perfect place to emerge into adulthood [pic] :-).
raining cicadas
By Lyss
Wed, 05/21/2008 - 10:38pm
I remember the last summer of the cicadas. Ew. I don't miss them the 17 years that they are gone.