weecorbie's Journal

Right now in the eastern U.S., annual cicadas are singing in the trees, the last few Magicicada hatchlings are disappearing into the soil in the northern parts of Brood XIII’s range, and thousands upon thousands of holes still mark the places where nymphs surfaced during this year’s double emergence. It was a marvelous year for Magicicada, particularly here on iNaturalist.

I’m just over the halfway point (at 50.9%) of reviewing this year’s observations, but it’s already obvious that this year’s emergence has added immensely to the picture of Magicicada distribution based on iNaturalist Research Grade data. This is particularly evident with the 13-year species:

M. tredecim (before and after)
M. tredecassini (before and after)
M. tredecula (before and after)
and especially M. neotredecim (before and after)

A Kind Heart and an Iron Will
Each cicada emergence generates all sorts of interesting stories of insect/human interaction, but one of this year’s was particularly encouraging. Adrienne Lowe (@adriennefriend here on iNat) had planned a relaxing getaway from work to visit the cicadas emerging in the Lake Geneva area of Wisconsin—one of the northernmost populations of Magicicada in the U.S. When she reached Big Foot Beach State Park, she learned from conversations with park staff that people had been stripping adult and teneral cicadas from the trees and shrubs, tearing off their wings, and carrying them away by the five-gallon bucket! Although the staff were upset about this, they felt powerless to act because, somewhere along the command chain, the cicadas had been dubbed “nuisance animals” that weren’t protected under the guidelines that safeguard most wildlife in state parks.

Adrienne wasn’t willing to accept that, and immediately began reaching out to Wisconsin DNR management, local media, and cicadologists (including Gene Kritsky, which is how I became aware of the situation), making calls, sending e-mails, and gathering as much information as possible from her hotel room. (So much for the relaxing getaway!) Ultimately, Adrienne prevailed: the DNR reviewed their policy, agreed that Magicicada deserved the same protection as the rest of the park’s wildlife, and posted signs and a press release advising visitors that collecting cicadas was illegal. Her struggle was highlighted in a story by Nick Bohr of WISN 12 News, helping to get the word out about the importance of protecting the cicadas.* As a relatively isolated population on the edge of the brood’s distribution, the Lake Geneva population of Brood XIII is fragile…and hopefully, Adrienne’s efforts have helped ensure that it will be protected during its next emergence, and for future generations of cicadas (and cicada lovers).

Next Up: Brood XIV
If you’re having Magicicada withdrawal, good news: the next big emergence is right around the corner, in spring of 2025! Brood XIV, one of the most widespread broods of 17-year cicadas, has a distribution broken into several patches, the largest of which is centered on KY. Another occurs in central PA, and two smaller populations exist on Long Island and Cape Cod. The Long Island population is threatened by overdevelopment, so it will be useful to see how the cicadas have been faring since their last appearance in 2008.

Observations of Brood XIV cicadas will be collected in 2025 Magicicada: Brood XIV, which starts in only 224 days! (Don’t you love that handy built-in countdown timer?)

*At the time the story was filmed, Adrienne did not want her full name released because she was still traveling in WI. She’s fine with sharing it here!

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!

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. :)