Here in south Oak Park, Illinois, we just heard our first Annual Cicada, a Tibicen pruinosa, singing about 45 minutes before sunset. (Sorry, cicada species don’t have common names.) Go here to see and hear examples of this species:
http://insects.ummz.lsa.umich.edu/fauna/michigan_cicadas/Michigan/Index.html#Tibicen_pruinosa
Last year we heard our first Tibicen pruinosa on June 27, although for several years before that we did not hear them until early July. Here is a page with some of our records for first and last dates for Annual Cicadas: http://saltthesandbox.org/cicada_hunt/DatesFound.htm
The Periodical Cicadas are still barely hanging on around here. We are finding lots of wings and partly eaten bodies, but seeing and hearing very few live ones. Actually, we have been feeling seriously deprived of Periodical Cicadas in our neighborhood. We have to drive a few miles west, to the forests of the Des Plaines River floodplain, to see them in large numbers. At least we seem to be a bit ahead of the game with the Annual Cicadas!
We have been falling way behind on cicada blogging, partly because Dad has lots of deadlines at work, and partly because the kids are much more interested in birds than cicadas this year. Eventually we’ll catch up, though–we do have a few stories to tell.
June 26th, 2007 at 8:49 pm We would like to thank Dad and kids so much for their website! We found your site shortly before the 17 year cicadas came (and left a message back then also). We are pleased to announce that in no small part to you that a great love of cicadas was developed by our kiddies! Not only did the 3 year old become very excited about cicadas it helped her over come her fear of ALL BUGS! Our 7 year old caught a nymph and adult cicada the first day they arrived here and was able to bring them to school (and be ‘popular’ for the day because of them too! :P ). This Mom was even asked to ‘cicada-sit’ a few nymphs untill they began to emerge so that little eyes could ohhh and ahh as they came out of their shells. Thankyou so much for sharing your pictures, stories, and investigations that we could also do. They passed many a fun filled hour and made fantastic memories that are sure to last another 17 years! :) Now it’s time to find annual cicadas!
July 9th, 2007 at 10:06 pm I’m wondering whether the nymphs have hatched. I was out of state for a week, and when I came back there were no more signs of the Magicicadas - not even dead bodies lying around! But a few weeks ago I did notice lots of branches with egg deposits. How can we check if they’ve hatched? Are they too small to see? Does anyone know?