Cicada Aka Bugs

[Tin Can]

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cicadas...to-see-cicada/

They are TINY format BUGS

Expected, shortly almost but not Locusts

Very loud

I last heard them 50 years ago

Eat them

[awty]

I hear them all the time....oh wait that's tinnitus.

Actually cicadas are in abundance here, sometimes drown out the tinnitus, but they are not as noisy as the bloody Lorikeets.

[Paul Coy]

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cicadas...to-see-cicada/

They are TINY format BUGS

Expected, shortly almost but not Locusts

Very loud

I last heard them 50 years ago

Eat them

Mmmmm.... Cicada wings?

[JMO]

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cicadas...to-see-cicada/

They are TINY format BUGS

Expected, shortly almost but not Locusts

Very loud

I last heard them 50 years ago

Eat them

Speaking as an entomologist, I thought I would clarify you are not quite correct in saying the cicadas are tiny "BUGS." The true bugs are in the Insect Order, Hemiptera, which are all insects (and indeed bugs) with piercing-sucking mouthparts that mostly feed on the sap of plants (though some, like bed bugs, have evolved to feed on the blood of mammals and other vertebrates, or even bodily fluids of other insects and invertebrates).

The cicadas are classified in the closely related Insect Order, Homoptera, which includes families like aphids, leafhoppers, scale insects, whiteflies and others that only suck the sap of plants. Also, among the Homoptera, the Cicada family (Cicadidae) are mostly among the largest (so not "tiny") homopterans, and this is especially the case for the Periodical Cicadas such as those that will be in abundance in various parts of the US this coming summer.

Don't ask me how many such insects and their families or Orders can dance on the head of a pin....

[John Layton]

John I envy your study of insects...which I think are truly fascinating! (possibly excepting for ticks, which are making our yards and fields here in Vermont quite toxic - but then again, this is not their fault)

I do have a question about cicadas...or perhaps more accurately those which spend the majority of their lives underground as larvae - is it true that they actually don't have working mouthparts? Or if they do, that these might be vestigial or non-functioning? I've heard this, and it does make sense seeing as they do spend most of their lives underground munching, and that with the relatively short period of time that they then will have to have fun mating, well...why bother with eating? And besides...if these cicadas were also looking for food, wouldn't we'd be witnessing some rather devastating mass-exfoliation events?

[Tin Can]

Very loud

Hard to sleep

Windshields are covered

We need to stop often to clean windshields

They are edible

Look for recipe

[John Layton]

hey...this is a photo thread! Anybody have any cicada pix? Or maybe pix of their cast-off exoskeletons? Or perhaps, following MR. Can's post above...a nice pic of some crispy, tasty cicada-snax? Sauteed cicadas over homemade pasta? What about a cicada stir-fry? Jeesh I'm getting hungry!

[Tim Meisburger]

I don't think you get them up there, but there will plenty of opportunity to shoot them here in Virginia. They can be very loud on their 17 year cycle. I'll do a macro 4x5 when they come out.

[JMO]

The immature life stages of the cicadas (and other Homopterans, or the Hemipteran true bugs) are called nymphs, and the cicada nymphs do live underground and feed on sap along the tree's roots. The nymphs' mouthparts are not vestigial or non-functioning, but they are dagger-like for "piercing-sucking", and probably change in length and configuration at each nymphal life stage (called an "instar"). As the nymphs feed and grow underground, in the case of cicadas for many years (up to 17 for the broods that will be making all the racket this summer), the nymph must molt and shed its previous cuticle, and transition to the next life stage or instar (the transition process is called "metamorphosis"). Since Homopterans and Hemipterans have a life cycle that is considered "incomplete metamorphosis," they do not have a pupal stage between the immature nymphal stages and the final adult and reproducing stage (as we are familiar with moths and butterflies emerging from a pupal case, or also called a chrysalis).

The cicadas that we will see emerging from the ground this summer will be the last instar nymphs, and they will crawl up the stems of their host tree and molt for the last time in their life cycle, into the adult stage (which is fully sexually competent). So along the stems of the trees (or laying on the ground below) you will be able to find many empty cast skins (or more properly called, nymphal cuticles), and then you'll be able to see the recently emerged adults whose bodies are not yet fully formed and hardened, and when that process is complete the fully formed adults with their expanded wings. The fully formed males will be making all the noise with their calling, hoping to attract females. And both adult sexes will be busily flying about until they can find a mate(s). The adults probably don't feed on the sap of trees very much, if at all. The adult females are equipped with a substantial saw-like ovipositor that they use to chisel grooves that look like splinter pockets in the bark along the more tender, young shoots or branches of their host trees. Each female can lay about 20-48 eggs in each of about 20 or more splinter pockets. After the eggs hatch, the first stage nymphs will drop to the soil and burrow below the surface to feed on the sap in whatever tree roots they are lucky enough to find, and get their piercing-sucking mouthparts into. And with much more luck, the nymphs will survive to become adults and repeat the cacophony 13 or 17 years later.

[Tin Can]

Exactly