Cicadas: singers of the dog days of summer

Posted 8/21/12

It’s a hot day, and you hear a sound in the trees that can best be describes as a buzzing, or a gourd being rattled at a high cadence, lasting about a half a minute, and finally fading into …

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Cicadas: singers of the dog days of summer

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It’s a hot day, and you hear a sound in the trees that can best be describes as a buzzing, or a gourd being rattled at a high cadence, lasting about a half a minute, and finally fading into nothing. The same sound might immediately be followed by an identical sound from another tree, perhaps farther off. We associate this sound with the heat of summer, because it is usually heard during the hottest part of the day. The singers we hear in the trees reinforcing the fact that it is very hot outside are none other than the dog-day cicada.

The dog-day cicada (Neotibicen canicularis) is an annual cicada (emerges every year). The individuals that are heard calling are the males seeking a mate. When a suitable female is attracted by the call, the pair mates, and the female lays her eggs in a twig of a tree. The adults die soon after. When the eggs hatch, the tiny nymphs fall to the ground, where they burrow underground. The nymphs stay underground for three years, where they feed on juices from tree roots. In the summer of the third year, the nymphs emerge from the ground, climb up a tree trunk, and shed their exoskeleton. The new adults wait for their wings to harden, and soon the reproductive cycle is repeated.

This region is host to around 15 different species of cicada. The most famous species is the 17-year cicada (Magicicada septendecim). This periodical cicada emerges in several broods in various areas of the U.S. at different times. Brood II (the East Coast brood) made a big showing here, mostly east of our region, in New Jersey and New York. Sometimes, this species is referred to as “17-year locusts”; this is in error, as locusts are in the grasshopper family. The magicicada holds the record for the insect with the longest lifespan.

The dog-day cicada or “dog-day harvest fly,” as they may be called in some areas, are rather benign to tree species; their numbers do not come close to posing a threat to trees. If there are sufficient numbers, the magicicada may cause some damage as they lay their eggs in small twigs; some areas see large numbers of the 17-year cicada.

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