Cicadas Emergence Rates and Distribution

Cicadas Emergence Rates and Distribution

During my hunt for Cicadas, I traveled to many different areas in Massachusetts. Unfortunately, while I did find exuvia evidence at these locations, I generally focused my efforts on Saint Patrick Cemetery in Lowell, Massachusetts. After all, you stick to where you have been successful in finding specimens. All the Cicada specimens that I refer to will be from this cemetery.

Update: The data compiled for this article is from 2004 and may no longer be relevant.

"When and How Much? - Tibicen Cicada Emergence and Distribution."

I heard the first call of a Tibicen canicularis Cicada in my area of the world on July 9th, 2004 which is when I started my hunt for Cicadas. After two long arduous weeks of never-ending searches I was finally successful in finding some specimens. The trees that I was successful in finding Cicadas on during the first part of the season seemed to be ash, maple and oak. However, later on in the season most Cicadas (which ended up being Tibicen canicularis) were on pine trees.

For the most part, I have been successful in finding Cicada nymphs and/or tenerals at all times of the day. The following data is a breakdown of the Cicadas I have found and the time of day in which I found them.

It seems that at the beginning of the Cicada season, I was obtaining mostly T. lyricen specimens, then towards the middle of the season, I had a mixture of both T. canicularis and T. lyricen, then towards the end of the season, I was obtaining all T. canicularis. This is indicative of Saint Patrick Cemetery only, as this is where I spent most of my time, it may not be indicative of the emergence of Cicadas elsewhere in Massachusetts. The emergence patterns may be vastly different elsewhere.

While I was unable to obtain any more T. lyricen specimens after August 8, 2004 I could still hear the call of the male T. lyricen up till about mid September 2004. After that it was mostly T. canicularis.

What would be good is to find another source for Cicadas next year in addition to returning to Saint Patrick Cemetery to see if the emergence pattern repeats itself.

The distribution of female vs. male Cicada emergence times during the year at best seems to be 50%. i.e.; you can find each gender at all times of their season for both species. However, the data above is only accurate in so far as that on some occasions I have neglected to note down the gender of the specimens that I have collected. For the 2005 season I will take accurate data to see if this percentage changes.