Brood V LI Nymph Emergence - June 7, 2016

BROOD V LONG ISLAND

Nymph Emergence

Wading River, New York

This female Magicicada septendecim Nymph was found in Wildwood State Park making its way up a tree trunk to emerge. Below are a series of photos of the nymphs emergence.Thanks goes to Elias Bonaros for his good eye in finding this one nymph in a forest full of trees and bushes!

The nymph secures itself to the leave to ready itself to emerge from its exoskeleton.

The back of the nymphs exoskeleton splits open to start the process of emergence.

The nymph hangs upside down for a short period of time so that its legs can harden so it can support its body weight.

While hanging upside down the nymphs wings begin to inflate.

 

When the nymphs legs harden enough it does a sit-up and grabs onto its exoskeleton.

 

It then pulls out the bottom part of its body.

It continues to hang from its exoskeleton to inflate its wings.

 

 

After the wings are fully inflated the nymph brings them in closer to its body.

 

As the nymphs exoskeleton hardens if becomes darker.

The next day the nymphs exoskeleton is fully hardened and her adult colors have developed.

Cicada Hunting in Lakewood, NJ

 TIBICEN AULETES

This season has been tough to locate Tibicen auletes on Long Island, for me anyhow, because I am new at learning the calls and signs of a cicada emergences. In an effort to find some of this species I went with a friend, Elias Bonaros, to Lakewood, NJ to a location known for having the T. auletes. While driving down we did hear T. auletes calling along the highway in a few locations. We marked the locations on our maps for future data points. 

Tibicen auletes nymph walking up an Oak Tree to eclose

After arriving in  Lakewood and doing a lot of searching we finally came upon some T. auletes exuviae under an Oak Tree along the tree line in front of a mall. Aside from those few shells not much evidence of any cicada in this area. The one exciting part of the whole trip was Elias finding a T. auletes nymph climbing up an Oak Tree. It was the first time him and I had seen a nymph of the T. auletes climbing a tree to eclose! They can climb fifty feet up a tree to emerge so we were very lucky to see it before it was out of sight or reach. 

At another location in Lakewood, NJ, we looked for Tibicen canicularis among the pine trees. It  was a lot easier to find T. canicularis exuviae and finally an eclosing nymph.

OTHER SIGHTINGS

In addition to Cicada hunting we always investigate any other wildlife we come across and often photograph them or at least most of the time I do! Below are some of the other animals and insects we ran across in Lakewood, NJ.

Polyphemus Silk Moth female that turned out to be pregnant and laid 60 eggs!

Strange poses from a Praying Mantis

Another strange pose! Could this be where martial arts moves comes from?

Fowler's Toad