On Monday’s outing, I found another cicada! I really believe they have beautiful markings. There are currently 170 species north of Mexico. Here in Texas, some 54 species are known according to Texas Entomology.
Lyric Cicada (Neotibicen lyricen ssp. lyricen ‘Western form lyricen’)! This is the third species that I found this summer. Adults feed on sap of hardwoods, especially pecan, walnut and many others in the walnut and rose families. Nymphs feed on the roots for several years.
Superb Dog-Day Cicada (Neotibicen superbus). This and the next cicada are ones I found earlier in the summer. In this case for this species, its diet preferences lean to oaks and junipers. Adults live in the trees and feed on xylem. The xylem is the plant vascular tissue that moves the water and dissolved minerals through the plant. Their life cycles ranges from 2 to 5 years. and adults live for 5 to 6 weeks. The nymphs feed on the roots.
Western Dusk Singing Cicada’ (Megatibicen resh). So this was the most interesting species to me. The marking on it resembles an upside-down Hebrew letter Resh. In fact, the males have been recorded producing a sound of 105 dB. According to BugGuide, this is one of the loudest insects in the world. Female cicadas can not sing, but do flick their wings in response to the males.
This is from my phone’s app. So the Western Dusk Singing Cicada sound is about the same as an ambulance siren. Pretty impressive. In a word, you may want to wear ear protection if in the woods while they sing.
I truly had no idea there were so many different species.
I never knew either.
The cicadas are cool and the The tardigrades are wonderful – next time I see one I will be looking more closly as they move around!
I thought you might. Wonderful critters.
I’m also a cicada fan. They are the sound of summer. They feed a lot of other critters too!
My cicadas have stopped singing here around 10 days ago. Summer is over, now the heat needs to stop eh!