#Dog-day Cicadas

[antiqueanimals]

Elements of Zoölogy: A Text-book. Written by Sanborn Tenney. 1875.

Internet Archive

[cricketchirp]

Lake Living & Maine Natural History Observatory

Two. Two publications this week. I’m always excited when the first appears on a local store shelf, but to have a featured article in the second as well (for the third time) is equally thrilling. Also scary. Why? Cuze once you put yourself out there you are out there and there are others out there just waiting to let you know how you erred. And if you know me, I err a lot. But it’s actually a good…

[onenicebugperday]

@illogicalghost submitted: Howdy! I've got two bugs to share.

The first one is an unknown cicada with possibly a missing backend? We found it on the sidewalk laying on its back and gently placed it on a nearby tree. The second is a cute little moth :) both found in Southern Wisconsin. Thanks, and have a good one!

The cicada looks intact to me! It's a northern dog-day cicada. And the moth is a tiger moth but I'd need to see the other side to say which. Either Spilosoma sp. or maybe a fall webworm moth.

[gennsoup]

Why not wet our lungs with wine, Sirius is coming on, the dog days are upon us, streets and alleys warping in the swelter, cicadas in acacia trees, artichokes in flower.

Alcaeus, Dog Star

[shifting-shapes-art]

superb dog-day cicada!!! my favorite bug ever and they're so prettyyyy

i couldn't decide whether to draw the fresh-shed version or the regular one so I mixed them lol

[sweetbunnytears]

newly emerged dog-day cicada❤︎

bugs are critical to our ecosystem, and we wouldn’t be alive without the majority of them. killing insects simply because you’re scared of them is harmful to not only your environment, but also YOU. cicadas specifically help aerate the filter of the soil that is used by us to plant crops.

[vpofcookies]

"we've got emduo at home"

The emduo at home:

emerald duo as bugs for @simplepotatofarmer

[coolbugs]

Bug of the Day

And here it is, fait accompli! A fully emerged and inflated cicada boi, he says see ya lata boi! :-)

[mothy35]

[vandaliatraveler]

Sunday morning hike at Friendship Hill National Historic Site, after two days of drenching rain that provided some relief from the terrible drought gripping Central Appalachia. I never thought I would be so happy to hear rain droplets smattering on moist leaves again. When the clouds broke above the Monongahela River, it was as if some great spirit had gifted me an impressionists' painting of the earth. Then the oppressive heat returned, and I realized the drought would hang on.

If nothing else, I was enchanted by the gorgeous rose mallow (Hibiscus moscheutos) and whimsical Allegheny monkeyflower (Mimulus ringens) now in bloom along the river's marshy edges. In the deeper woods, the blue cohosh (Caulophyllum thalictroides) is succumbing to summer's heat, but not before leaving behind a gift of iridescent blue berries, shiny like blue porcelain. And the summer boletes have pushed up from the leafy humus of the forest floor with that certain heady perfume only mushroom hunters can love. On a more macabre note, I was mesmerized by a cicada killer (Sphecius speciosus) tackling an unfortunate dog-day cicada (Neotibicen canicularis), which is an annual rather than a periodical cicada. The cicada continued to buzz dutifully as the giant wasp prepared to paralyze it and fly it off to her nest to be eaten alive by her larvae. The wasp literally has to drag that cicada, which is twice her size, up a tree to gain sufficient altitude to take flight. Fortitude and dedication.

As an aside, I was amused by a recent story about some residents of the Pacific Northwest losing their shit over sightings of giant Asian "murder" hornets, only to be informed the presumed felons are native cicada killers, which are unaggressive and harmless to human beings. Rather not live in a constant state of fear and paranoia from murder hornets and other villainous wildlife? Download a free field guide instead. :-)

[clannfearrunt]

Little guyyyyyyyyy everyone wish it a safe molt

[forestfeeling]

You’ve been a good neighbor

[jonnysinsectcatalogue]

Eastern Yellowjacket - Vespula maculifrons 

Talk about a blast from the past with these images! In this blog's earlier days, video posts were uploaded to the blog that showcased these hungry Wasps who were dining on freshly caught insect meat. At the time, I was quite happy to feature these examples of insect behavior, but something was brought to my attention as a result of those video being uploaded to YouTube. A helpful watcher left a comment inquiring as to what exactly the Wasp was eating and that a better angle would help. They were absolutely correct! While I had no further videos to share from that day, I did have these images. And so, I hope these pictures can provide a better view of the Wasps' feast on the carcass of a freshly molted Dog-Day Cicada. The head was missing, leading me to believe that the Cicada was decapitated from above, near its exuvia, leading to the head and body landing in two different locations. Genuinely, it was the perfect time to strike since the freshly molted imago hadn't had time to sclerotize and solidify itself. Cicada landed on its back, causing the legs (the ones that haven't yet been harvested) to point up or to the side.

The primary feeding documented in these pictures is the carving up of thorax's innards and biting of the exposed abdomen as the Eastern Yellowjackets dive in for a bite! The Cicada's 4 wings - which weren't even given the change to unfold and inflate - appear in their wavy forms with a faded white-to-green color accentuated by the deep-green of the wing's primary vein. It sounds cruel, but this is the way of things, and Wasps need to nourish their nest's larvae so that they in turn are nourished. Although many Vespula Wasps are often feared due to their ability to painfully bite and sting, their persistence, their attraction to humans (and their food), and their warning stripes (of course), it's always worth remembering that these insects have an important part to play within their ecosystem beyond annoying humans out in the wilderness and stinging for seemingly no reason. The many Yellowjackets of North America are experts at managing pest insect populations to feed the larvae within their nest. Furthermore, they provide valuable assistance as generalist flower pollinators alongside other flying insects. The problems come in when their aggression or feeding instincts surge into overdrive as a result of a nest defense or the seasons changing. Even I'm afraid of Yellowjackets and their propensity to swarm, but that more I learn about them, the less there is to fear. Having that said, it can be absolutely maddening to accidentally stumble on a ground nest and face the wrath of the colony!

Pictures were taken on July 29, 2018 with a Samsung Galaxy S4. And of course, as the striped workers take what they can carry for the nest, numerous Pavement Ants arrive to collect their fill too. Although many times smaller than this Wasp specie, a Yellowjacket would do well to avoid Pavement Ants given how suddenly they can climb, swarm and pinch apart matter with their mandibles!

[pragretti]

Cicada

Uh so I don't usually post my academic art, but I made a cicada out of wax and casted him in bronze. Here he is!! I used a black bronze patina for the detail to show up.

My hand for size reference. Made in honor of the 13 and 17 year cicadas coming in the summer.

[alcnfr]

A Dog-Day Cicada (Neotibicen... spp.) just hanging around the lot today.

[lovetogether]

Phone drawings in bed of that potential horror game protag (animal choice currently cicada curtesy of @ crazysodomite ) and the other picture is our thing. You know