l| a time to be silent and a time to speak |l

Cicada

That time when we were in Cameron, we saw this huge insect along the corridor. Totally gross looking to me (almost all insects do, especially those of this size!) The amazing thing about this creature is that it lives as a grub in the ground for 13-17 years before developing into an adult. Life purpose: to mate and then die - all in one month's time. (Sounds like a summary of humans... most who don't live in solitude anyway. Ha!)

So here i am, a crash course on Cicadas!


Life Stages (13-17 year cycle):

(1) Egg. They look like rice.

(2) Larvae. Once they hatch they look like a cross between wiggly rice and a termite. They suck on the branch they hatched on for a while, they fall to earth and begin digging in search of a root.

(3) Nymph. Once they've been sucking on the root for a while they become nymphs. Once the time is right, the nymph crawls to the surface, and crawls up the nearest tree.

(4) Adult. Once they crawl from the ground and anchor themselves to what they think is a tree, they molt, leaving their nymph skin behind. Their wings dry and they start looking for a mate. Once they mate, they die. Mated females excavate a series of Y-shaped eggnests in living twigs and lay up to twenty eggs in each nest. A female may lay as many as 600 eggs!


How many kinds of cicadas are there:

Hundreds, maybe thousands, of varieties of cicadas live in North America alone. One well known type is the Magicicada (17 year locust - a misnomer cos they are not locust and they do not destroy crops and plants like they do, except when too many feed on one plant).


Their diet:

Cicadas subsist solely on the fluids of a living deciduous tree. Magicicada adults really don't eat - they mate and die, living off their fatty bodies (even though they are capable of sucking fluids from trees and have to, according to other obversers).

The "songs" they produce:

Only the males make that noise (although some females are capable of making sounds). They have drum like membranes on their abdomen that vibrate very quickly, creating the creepy (and loud!) tones. Every species of cicada has a unique call. The frequency and tone of their calls is related to the temperature, and the time of day.

Do they bite:

Cicadas do not possess special defensive mechanisms - they do not sting or bite. Cicadas can hurt you only if they mistake you for a tree branch... When approached, a cicada will simply fly away. If handled, both males and females struggle to fly, and males make a loud defensive buzzing sound that may startle but is otherwise harmless. Cicadas are not poisonous or known to transmit disease. (I think their ugly appearance helps to ward off danger like me too. Oh but i kinda like their transparent wings..) Oh well, some people eat them i read. Even dogs..



To read more, such as the meaning of different frequencies etc of their sounds (amazing how people actually have the patience and wisdom to decipher that!), and to see more pictures, click here and here (more humourous site).