NEBRASKAland Magazine is dedicated to outstanding photography and informative writing with an engaging mix of articles and photos highlighting Nebraska’s outdoor activities, parklands, wildlife, history and people.
Issue link: http://mag.outdoornebraska.gov/i/1504589
August-September 2023 • Nebraskaland 41 cicada, annual cicada emergence is not synchronized; some individuals emerge each summer. The nymph's journey continues as its climbs a tree, eventually halting and tightly clinging to the trunk or branch to undergo its final transformation into an adult. First, the cicada pushes its head and thorax through the back of the exoskeleton of the nymph. Then the legs emerge and grab the head of the exoskeleton and pull out the rest of the body. The adult, still clinging to the exoskeleton, now slowly and gently unfolds its wings. Once unfurled, the wings and body begin to harden and change color, at one point turning a beautiful hue of gold, and voilà, the adult scissors grinder is ready to rock-n-roll. Living only four to five weeks, the adults waste no time in their rush to reproduce. The males climb high into a tree and begin calling by expanding and contracting an organ on their abdomen. The females, which emerge a few days after the males, respond by clicking their wings at a slow, steady pace, making a sound resembling snapping fingers that attracts males. After mating, females seek a small branch and, using their mouthparts — small, sharp, straw-like structures tucked beneath their head — make several slits in the bark, in which they lay 20 to 40 eggs. They repeat this process several times, laying a total of 200 to 400 eggs with the goal of starting a new generation of treetop singers. Hopefully, their chorus tugs at your heart strings rather than rattling your brain. N The Cassin's cicada and the pharaoh cicada, the latter also known as the Linnaeus's cicada, are our state's only species of 17-year cicada. Inhabiting deciduous woodlands in southeastern Nebraska, they are easily distinguished from annual cicadas by their black bodies, orange legs and wing veins and beautiful reddish-orange eyes. The pharaoh is distinguished from Cassin's by the broad orange stripe on its abdomen. The life cycle of a 17-year cicada is similar to that of an annual cicada, except that the nymphs feed and molt in the soil for 17 years and all individuals emerge during the same year. The synchronized emergence, which starts in early June in Nebraska, may be a strategy to overwhelm predators, mainly birds. Strangely, both the pharaoh and Cassin's cicada are on the same 17-year cycle, emerging the same year. They last appeared in Nebraska in 2015. The pharaoh's call is a high-pitched "weeeee- whoa" or "pharaoh," while the Cassin's call is a series of ticks followed by a drawn-out buzz, which rises and falls in pitch. Both calls last only a few seconds. In prime habitat, the in-unison calling of tens of thousands of 17-year cicadas is a raucous event of biblical proportions. Prepare yourselves: They will come again in 2032. 17-year Cicadas A Cassin's 17-year cicada perches on an oak leaf in Douglas County during their 1998 emergence.