Cicada Face

 

 

Susan Reynolds sells earrings and necklaces made from the wings of dead cicadas.Susan Reynolds

 

Cicadas as fashion:

Wing Art 

Susan Reynolds sells earrings and necklaces made from the wings of dead cicadas. 

Susan Reynolds picked it up a dead cicada, took it home, and became fascinated by the shape and intricate veining of its wings.

Almost two decades later, she’s still making cicada-wing earrings.

This year, as her customers celebrate Brood X — the cicada cohort that emerges every 17 years — she incorporated flowers, leaves and birds cut from vintage postcards. The results look like tiny panels of stained glass.

“I want to make jewelry that looks like a fairy flew into an elderly woman’s room and started snatching things off her dressing table,” Reynolds said.



 

The New York Times <nytdirect@nytimes.com>

Let it go

 

"Amazing Grace"

  

https://youtu.be/y9OGNMJ0-Kw

The cicadas are here.

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images





The cicadas are here to party.




And like any good party, especially one that only happens every 17 years, the emergence will be loud and crowded. Billions of cicadas, part of a cohort called Brood X, are emerging from underground tunnels to sing, mate and die across the U.S. Here’s everything you need to know.




One person who is especially excited for them is Bun Lai, a Connecticut-based chef who grew up in Japan. For Lai, cicadas are mesmerizing to eat, their sweet, bitter flavor reminiscent of walnuts, chestnuts and adzuki beans, and their gently crunchy exterior giving way to creaminess. He plans to host cicada-centric dinners at his farm.

Delias eucharis, the common Jezebel

 

 

  

 

Delias eucharis, the common Jezebel, is a medium-sized pierid butterfly found in many areas of south and southeast Asia, especially in the non-arid regions of India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Myanmar and Thailand. The common Jezebel is one of the most common of the approximately 225 described species in the genus Delias. en.wikipedia.org

The cicadas are peeing

 

1. Do cicadas pee? - Cicada Mania

   www.cicadamania.com/cicadas/do-cicadas-pee

   Absolutely, cicadas do pee. There are a couple of reasons why: They pee to eliminate excess fluids taken in while drinking xylem (1). They pee to eliminate non-essential amino acids (2). Underground, they could use excess fluid to help moisten and remold their tunnels & cells (2). They might, in some cases, even use it to keep ants from attacking….

2. 

   Yes, Brood X cicadas pee - The Washington Post

   www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2021/05/25/partly-cloudy...

   Cicadas pee a lot, particularly during warm days. And when thousands of cicadas are perched overhead on tree branches, their pee falls to the ground like a gentle rain shower. Their pee is also ...

Scientists discover fungus that’s turning cicadas into sex addicts

A fungus which turns bugs into sex-crazed zombies has been discovered by scientists.

By Charlotte Edwards, The Sun June 27, 2019 

Once cicada insects are infected with the Massospora cicadina virus, they will mate until their genitals fall off and they turn into “flying salt shakers of death.” This research was published in the journal Fungal Ecology.

Scientists from West Virginia University in the US found that the fungus contained an amphetamine and a psychoactive chemical that caused a similar effect to magic mushrooms.

Matt Kasson, a forest pathologist from the university, said: “These psychoactive compounds were just two of less than 1,000 compounds found in these 

It also affects the cicada’s brain like a psychoactive drug so they turn into sex-crazed zombies and will not stop breeding until they die. They won’t even be deterred when their bodies start to go moldy and their genitals fall off.

The scientists think that some chemicals in the fungus are suppressing the appetites of the infected insects so they think of nothing but sex.

This study is important because the way the fungus works and its impact on the brain could aid new pharmaceutical discoveries.

“We anticipate these discoveries will foster a renewed interest in early diverging fungi and their pharmacologically important secondary metabolites, which may serve as the next frontier for novel drug discovery,” Kasson said. cicadas.”

It’s thought that a small fraction of cicadas are infected when they emerge as adults from fungus spores in the soil or on the wings of other insects.

This then develops into a full-blown infection that can encourage male hosts to flap their wings more so they attract more males and spread the disease.

It also affects the cicada’s brain like a psychoactive drug so they turn into sex-crazed zombies and will not stop breeding until they die. They won’t even be deterred when their bodies start to go moldy and their genitals fall off.

The scientists think that some chemicals in the fungus are suppressing the appetites of the infected insects so they think of nothing but sex.

This study is important because the way the fungus works and its impact on the brain could aid new pharmaceutical discoveries.

“We anticipate these discoveries will foster a renewed interest in early diverging fungi and their pharmacologically important secondary metabolites, which may serve as the next frontier for novel drug discovery,” Kasson said.

FILED UNDER INSECTS , NATURE , RESEARCH , SCIENCE

Scientists discover fungus that is turning cicadas into sex addicts

 

  https://trib.al/GGRVuGO

Link: https://nypost.com/2019/06/27/scientists-discover-fungus-thats-turning-cicadas-into-sex-addicts/?utm_medium=SocialFlow&utm_source=NYPTwitter&utm_campaign=SocialFlow 

Cicada Link Directory

North American Cicadas: Periodical and Annual | Cacama | Diceroprocta | Magicicada / Periodical | Okanagana | Platypedia | Quesada | Tibicen | Australia | France | Japan | New Zealand | Slovenia | Asia | Europe | Assorted International | Buy Cicadas | Cicada Books | Cicada Goods | General Cicada Links | Cicada Killer Wasps

 

The Top American Sites

• Cicada Central
• Cicada Hunt
• Cicadas.info
• Entomology - Cicadidae Yahoo! Group
• Great Lakes Cicada Page
• Insect Singers
• Magicicada.org
• Massachusetts Cicadas
• Periodical Cicadas
• The Mount’s Cicada Web Site (Gene Kritsky)

Buy Cicadas

1. Shop My-Bugs.com for nicely framed cicadas. PHOTOS
2. BugsDirectUK.com: Insects breeders Good basic information from the UK. PHOTOS
3. Insect Sale Dried insects from around the world. PHOTOS
4. God of Insects: worth visiting for the photos. PHOTOS
5. The Bone Room sells preserved cicada specimens.

Cicada Books

1. A monograph of oriental cicadidae. Download the PDF or HTML version.
2. Marlatt’s The periodical cicada: an account of Cicada septendecim, its natural enemies and the means of preventing its injury… (PDF) or same document on Archive.org (archive.org) (added 11/11/12)
3. North American cicadas (1921) by Davis, William T. (William Thompson), 1862-1945 (archive.org) (added 11/11/12)
4. All cicada texts on archive.org (added 11/11/12)
5. All cicada texts on naldc.nal.usda.gov (added 11/11/12)
6. Tim McNary's Bibliography of the Cicadoidea (added 11/11/12)
7. Cicada: Exotic Views
8. The Plague and the Puzzle by Gene Kritsky
9. See many more on our Cicada Books page

See More:  http://www.cicadamania.com/cicadalinks.html

 

Cicadas are the World's Longest Lived Insects

 

 An image from Roy Troutman:

Tibicen tibicen (T. chloromerus, T. chloromera)

Sourc: http://www.cicadamania.com/cicadas/category/life-cycle/annual/

 

Op-Ed Contributor

Here Comes the Buzz

By CRAIG GIBBS
Published: May 1, 2013

IT may not be as grand as the wildebeest migrations across Africa’s eastern savanna or the march of emperor penguins across miles of Antarctic ice to their inland nesting areas. But it is a wildlife phenomenon not seen elsewhere in the world.

Valero Doval

Over the next few weeks, as soil temperatures reach a sustained temperature of 64 degrees, cicadas from Connecticut to North Carolina will emerge from their subterranean world for the first time since they burrowed underground as nymphs in 1996, returning in numbers that dwarf those other spectacles. The buzzing of males will be heard in a mating ritual that stretches back to at least the ice age. Then, within six weeks, they will all be dead, hundreds of millions, if not billions, of them, and their progeny will not be seen until 2030.

These are the Brood II cicadas, one of the longest living insects in the world, seen only once every 17 years along the East Coast. (There are 11 other broods that follow the same cycle, though in different years; this is one of the largest.) Of the roughly 10 million insect species on earth, cicadas constitute about 3,000. Of those, a mere seven, collectively called periodic cicadas and found only in eastern North America, spend either 13 or 17 years growing underground, until it is time for them to emerge and take their adult form.

They also harbor a mystery that has confounded the biologists who study them: why did their synchronized life cycles evolve? One theory among several suggests that it was a response to the atmospheric cooling during the Pleistocene, to ensure sufficient populations for successful mating. If so, the cicada may yet reprise its role as climate indicator if its cycle is disrupted by a warming planet.

What we do know is this: Their buzzing can reach 90 decibels, equivalent to some power motors. They have been seen in clusters of up to 1.5 million per acre. As if from some horror movie, cicada nymphs have been described as “boiling out of the ground.” Snow shovels are sometimes employed to clear them away.

But there is no reason to fear these insects, which grow to about 1.5 inches in length, with big red compound eyes. Cicadas don’t bite. And don’t worry about your plants. They’ll be fine. There’s no need to reach for the bug spray.

While the ecological role played by some insects is important for our own survival (bees and pollination, for instance), they seldom get the credit or attention they deserve. Bigger creatures tend to dominate the spotlight. The fascinating cicada life cycle returns our gaze to the microcosmos beneath our feet, where these insects are sustained by sucking the juices of tree roots.

They emerge at night from tunnels they dig to the surface. Once mates have been secured, the females will deposit their eggs in the twigs of trees and shrubs, laying up to 600 eggs each. This does little permanent damage to trees; some small branches may be broken, but the end result is often the same as that from pruning — healthier plants.

The cicadas also provide an overwhelming smorgasbord for other animals. (Another theory about the evolution of their long life cycle and mass synchronous emergence is that it confounds predators — birds, reptiles, mammals, even other insects — and that, even though these predators may consume cicadas voraciously, there are so many of them that the population is not seriously depleted.)

They are also a culinary cornucopia for the adventuresome among us. You can find recipes for cicada dumplings, tacos and stir-fries, among other dishes, on the Web. The Onondaga Indians of New York credit the arrival of cicadas as having once saved them from famine.

These insects offer other benefits, too. By tunneling to the surface, nymphs aerate the soil. Predators that feed on them increase in population, while their other prey get a reprieve. And the decomposing bodies of those cicadas return much needed nitrogen to the soil.
The last year Brood II was seen, Bill Clinton was president, Charles and Diana agreed to divorce, the Dow Jones industrial average closed the year at just under 6,550 and the Internet was in its infancy. Now there is a network of citizen-based science groups poised to start collecting data that may help shed new light on this phenomenon. One worry is that the unyielding creep of development continues to decimate cicada habitat. So if you hear the buzz of the cicada, take a moment to revel in their remarkable survival strategy.

Craig Gibbs is an entomologist with the Wildlife Conservation Society, based at the Queens Zoo.

A version of this op-ed appeared in print on May 2, 2013, on page A23 of the New York edition with the headline: Here Comes the Buzz.

 

For Op-Ed, follow @nytopinion and to hear from the editorial page editor, Andrew Rosenthal, follow @andyrNYT.

 

 Source:  http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/02/opinion/here-comes-the-cicadas-buzz.html?nl=opinion&emc=edit_ty_20130502&_r=0

 

 

 

Beginner's Mind

Sit down before facts like a little child, and be prepared to give up every preconceived notion.  Follow humbly whatever and to whatever abyss nature leads, or you shall learn nothing.
- T.H. Huxley

Elvis Presley - Funny How Time Slips Away

 

Wallace Stevens

Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird 

I 

Among twenty snowy mountains, 

The only moving thing Was the eye of the blackbird. 

II 

I was of three minds, 

Like a tree In which there are three blackbirds. 

III 

The blackbird whirled in the autumn winds.

It was a small part of the pantomime. 

IV

A man and a woman Are one. 

A man and a woman and a blackbird Are one. 

V

I do not know which to prefer, 

The beauty of inflections Or the beauty of innuendoes, 

The blackbird whistling Or just after. 

VI 

Icicles filled the long window With barbaric glass. 

The shadow of the blackbird Crossed it, to and fro. 

The mood Traced in the shadow An indecipherable cause. 

VII 

On thin men of Haddam, 

Why do you imagine golden birds? 

Do you not see how the blackbird 

Walks around the feet Of the women about you? 

VIII 

I know noble accents And lucid, 

escapable rhythms; 

But I know, too, 

That the blackbird is involved In what I know. 

IX 

When the blackbird flew out of sight, 

It marked the edge Of one of many circles. 

X 

At the sight of blackbirds Flying in a green light, 

Even the bawds of euphony Would cry out sharply. 

XI 

 He rode over Connecticut In a glass coach. 

Once, a fear pierced him, 

In that he mistook The shadow of his equipage For blackbirds. 

XII 

The river is moving. The blackbird must be flying. 

XIII 

It was evening all afternoon.

It was snowing And it was going to snow. 

The blackbird sat In the cedar-limbs.

-Wallace Stevens

  

Cicada

Cicada is a Latin word meaning "Buzzer" which is the sound this insect makes.