Periodical Cicada, Seventeen Year Cicada (Magicicada septendecim)

Wow, great pictures... taken right at the time they're leaving their shells. I would have thought some birds would be there to take advantage of the situation. When were these taken, last year?

There were SOOO many of them. Funny thing, I never once saw birds eating them. Maybe they did and I just missed it.

I think this was 2 years ago in 2005. They really did a number on my small trees! I need to take some pictures of the damage (still present today) and post those in the cicada gallery. It was infuriating to see what they did.

Lots of questions arise...something must like eating them besides the Cicada Wasps....

http://davesgarden.com/bf/adv_search.php?searcher%5Bcommon%5D=cicada+killer&searcher%5Bbugorder%5D=&searcher%5Bfamily%5D=&searcher%5Bgenus%5D=&searcher%5Bspecies%5D=&Search=Search


Were these part of the main seventeen-year cycle that you know of, or maybe one of the others? That's really something. I've never seen them that thick.

This was part of the 17 year explosion. They were just everywhere! Tons of them. I never really expected anything like that. That photo was taken next door at the neighbor's - on an apple tree. They were just as heavy in my yard...but mostly from flying in. My land was bulldozed to build the house in 1996...so that would have dug up and killed a lot of them that were buried directly in my land. Didn't matter though...they swarmed in from everywhere nearby. I fear the next time, I will have them emerging as thick under my trees. As I understand it, the females dig their rear end into the small branches of trees (I saw this happening) to lay eggs. They'll make long lines of what looks like little knife cuts in the branch. The eggs hatch and feed there for a little while and then drop to the ground under the tree and then they dig in and stay underground for 17 years. The branches are weakened and sometimes break off in the wind or die. Maple trees seem to heal up pretty well afterwards, but it's still a pretty nasty looking wound. They really make crabapple trees look horrible.

I added 2 photos of the damage they caused. This is just two of the trees.

I'll post them here too.

Red Maple tree damaged by cicadas. This is 2 years after they burrowed holes in the branches to lay eggs.

Ornamental Cherry (Kwanzan I believe?) tree damaged by cicadas. This is 2 years after they burrowed holes in the branches to lay eggs.

Needless to say, I hate cicadas. I don't mind the annual type, but I despise the 17 year type and hope they all get eaten by a parasite before they emerge! :)

This message was edited Apr 13, 2007 5:49 PM

Incredible. Great pictures too, good to have in their 'dossier'. The scars are huge. Cherries and Crab Apples have a hard enough time as it is.

That does look like a 'Kanzan' Cherry, I guess the name has been corrected to be spelled without the 'W' ? Resin has been pointing this out in the ID forum lately.

I always used the W in it because the tag had the W and everywhere you look, you see the W. http://www.google.com/search?q=kwanzan+cherry&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

Oh well. I like the tree. Doesn't matter to me if there's a W or not in it's name :)

I'm confused, I've NEVER seen any white ones before. We only have the black ones - many, many, MANY black ones, lol. Are they albinos? But, there are many white ones in your pic. Is this is a subspecies or something?

~Kristy

They are white when they come out of the shell - out of the ground. Several hours later they turn black.

This message was edited Jun 23, 2007 3:10 PM

Really? Wow, that's kinda weird, lol.

~Kris