Comments on: Brood XIV

By: Dave

Dave — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 18:42:20 +0000

Smart dog! I’ve heard Retrievers have a pretty advanced sense of play.

Thanks for stopping by.

By: Delany Dean

Delany Dean — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 16:30:31 +0000

Once my beloved dog, Flannery, came running into the house, very excited, dashing back and forth… and buzzing loudly! Turns out she had a live cicada held gently (she was a Labrador Retriever) in her mouth, and she found a way to have a whole lot of fun with it…

By: David Harmon

David Harmon — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 03:41:14 +0000

Hmm… The black-and-red markings just look wrong, and I think ours had somewhat rounder fronts. Also, they definitely didn’t show up in similar numbers each year — some years there were barely any, some years they were all over. Possibly they were 7- or 13- year cicadas, which also have varying brood sizes. (There are also 3-year cicadas, but ours weren’t that regular.)

Did you know that individual cicadas occasionally add a year to their cycle, thus transferring to the next brood? I assume that helps repopulate a brood that gets really clobbered by the usual hazards.

By: Dave

Dave — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 02:19:26 +0000

bev – Thanks; glad you liked. A year from now, you’ll be able to read a much fuller and better researched account at my mother’s site when we post her Game News column for June. She’s planning to track down the Penn State scientist who posted the photo of the bore holes and see what else she can find out about them.

robin – That does sound sort of traumatic, I guess, for a certain kind of teenager. It’s cool, though, the way periodical cicadas prompt an intrusion of wonder into everyday conversations – it beats talking about the weather! Thanks for your kind words about the post.

Rurality – Good point. Let’s start saying it!

David – Did your boyhood cicadas look like this?

Cicadas are notoriously clumsy fliers regardless of the species – “like little kamikazes,” as a fellow I was talking to today put it.

By: David Harmon

David Harmon — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 00:46:49 +0000

That guy’s gorgeous! I haven’t seen cicadas here yet, but when I was a kid in New York (not the city yet; Long Island) there were a few years where they were hopping all over the place. Definitely a different species than yours, as ours were iridescent green, with (IIRC) green eyes. Not very bright, either — I once saw one hopping along the ground at speed, straight into the trunk of a tree, where it bounced off, stunned.

(Come to think of it, about every three years there, we had a plague of something — cicadas, slugs, frogs, moss, etc.)

By: Rurality

Rurality — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 17:31:19 +0000

What a cool collective noun that would make: a rapture of cicadas!

By: robin andrea

robin andrea — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 01:32:17 +0000

What a spectacular sight that 17-year cicada is. I haven’t seen one in so long, I had nearly forgotten. I lived in New Jersey for the first 18 years of my life, and I remember the cicada, and all the talk one year about how they only showed up every 17 years. It was summertime, and one landed on me while I was getting ready to dive into our backyard pool. It was the biggest flying insect I had ever seen, and to have it land on me was the ultimate teenager’s nightmare! I have to say, though, it’s really fantastic to see one again here, dave. You remind me why blogging is the coolest thing. Great post.

By: bev

bev — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 00:06:25 +0000

Excellent piece and beautiful photos, Dave. Those little “bore holes” are pretty cool.

By: Dave

Dave — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 18:03:16 +0000

Hi marja-leena – Glad you found this interesting. Keep in mind that these are quite different – in a seperate genus – from the annual or dog-day cicadas, which are probably what most people have in mind when they talk about cicadas.

arby – Thanks for the informative comment. Sorry to hear about the impact on your plums and especially peaches (one of my favorite fruits). That Cicada Mania site advises trying to spray them off of small trees and shrubs with a garden hose; I don’t know if that would work or not. Sounds like it may be a little too late for that in any case.

By: arby

arby — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 15:54:09 +0000

They are earlier here in central KY, the singing seems to have peaked a couple of days ago. The singing dies down a bit in mid-afternoon, but the air is full of females searching out a good branch to lay eggs in. I had high hopes for stonefruit this year, peaches and plums. Due to last year’s April freeze, there was no fruit, and I had hoped, fewer Plum Curculio that have denied me fruit in past years. Alas, fruit-laden peach branches are already browning and breaking off. sigh. rb