Swan Song?
I have not heard as many cicadas singing this summer. As we took our morning walk a cicada was singing ahead.
This was an opportunity that had not happened for me before. It was right there! And when I picked it up I could feel the vibrations!
Tyler Quigley. “Sounds of Cicadas”. ASU – Ask A Biologist. 23 July, 2021. https://askabiologist.asu.edu/cicada-sound wrote this: “…male cicadas use a different, louder part of their bodies to make noise. Both sides of their thoraxes have thin, ridged areas of their exoskeletons called tymbals. Tymbals are made of a rubbery substance called resilin. The cicadas vibrate their tymbals very fast using muscles in their bodies. With every vibration, a sound wave is released, and cicadas can send out 300-400 sound waves per second! Females also make sounds to attract males, but they use their wings to make a clicking sound, rather than a high-pitched song like the males. Cicadas, and all insects for that matter, also have hollow tubes running through their body called trachea. Trachea move oxygen and carbon dioxide around, sort of like our lungs. Trachea are also hollow, so they are also used by the cicada to make their songs louder. All in all, the cicada is one complicated insect instrument!”
Some bats may use ultraviolet glowing toes to communicate with their kin Thanks Claire!
The Strange Heat Island Lurking Beneath Minneapolis
Keep looking!
The more you know, the more you see and the more you see, the more you know
What s cool find, the cicada. And getting to hold it while it was singing. I want glowing toes too. Bats are special.
Fascinating article about the cave under Minneapolis!
Glowing toes would be fun, Judy – do they make fluorescent nail polish?
That is one very loud cicada!
Beautiful cicada. A lucky find.