Cicadas
- katemacquarrie22
- 1 minute ago
- 2 min read
Many of PEI’s wild animals are more often heard than seen – none more so than Cicadas. Most of us immediately recognize their high-pitched, buzzsaw-like sound, but would you recognize the insect that makes it? Meet the Northern Dog-day Cicada (Neotibicen canicularis).
The hottest stretch of summer weather in August is sometimes called the ‘dog days’, appropriately accompanied by a soundtrack of Dog-day Cicadas (sometimes mistakenly called Locusts). What you’re hearing are male Cicadas looking for a mate. Each male is able to make that sound thanks to a specialized structure called a ‘tymbal’: a series of tiny ribs connected by flexible membranes. Think of it as the world’s smallest accordion. By flexing, the Cicada can move these ribs in and out to create a click; doing this hundreds of times a second creates the long buzz we hear.
That buzz is impressive because it’s so LOUD. The back end of the male’s body is hollow, allowing the sound to be amplified (similar to the hollow bodies of musical instruments like drums, violins, and guitars). Adding to this is the fact that male Cicadas like to increase their chances of finding mates by hanging out in groups, turning up the collective volume.
Cicadas made headlines this spring because of the emergence of billions of 17-year periodic Cicadas in parts of the US. Periodic Cicadas synchronize their life cycles to all emerge, mate, and die at the same time, making for an amazing natural show. Our Dog-day Cicadas are an annual species: they don’t synchronize, which means some emerge every year.
After mating, the female Dog-day Cicada deposits her eggs on the twig of a nearby tree. Over the next couple of months, these eggs will hatch into tiny nymphs that drop to the ground. There, they’ll burrow down, find a tasty tree root with sap to feed on, and stay for an average of three years.
When conditions are right, the nymph will dig itself out of the ground, climb the tree, develop into an adult Cicada, and fly off to find a mate. Adults live only a few weeks, just long enough to reproduce.
Dog-day Cicadas are harmless to both people and plants at all stages of their life-cycle, and provide ecological services. Nymphs contribute to soil aeration and enrichment, while adults are a useful late-summer food source for everything from spiders and snakes to birds, bats, shrews, voles, and other mammals. They’re edible for humans, too, if you want to give them a try!
A multi-year lead-up to a few short weeks of life may seem like an odd strategy, but it obviously works for Cicadas. Their sound is an unmistakable sign of the end of summer on PEI Untamed!