Magicicada Brood II

UPDATED: Expanded and organized into topics.

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Contents

• Magicicada in Staten Island's Clove Lakes Park
• About Magicicada
• Related Content
• Links

Magicicada in Staten Island's Clove Lakes Park

Yesterday, Matthew Wills and I traveled to Staten Island in search of Magicicada, the periodical cicada, specifically, Brood II. We both had examined the online reports and articles; although the south shore of Staten Island is their stronghold, Cloves Lake Park - not that far from the ferry terminal - kept turning up as one of the places they'd been sighted. As a bonus, I had the car, and this park was closest to the Verrazano narrows bridge.

Magicicada Brood II emerges

I was excited to hear that periodical cicadas are emerging on Staten Island. Knowing my interest in such things, Blog Widow alerted me that he had just read about it on one of his favorite blogs, Joe My God, reporting on an article in the Staten Island Advance:

Batches of cicadas, those giant, singing insects that emerge in a massive swarm every 17 years, have begun to poke their heads out of the earth ... Similar early risers have been detected all along the Eastern Seaboard ... Some of the obnoxiously loud insects have been seen, and heard, in Wolfe's Pond Park in Huguenot and in Great Kills backyards in recent weeks.
- Cicadas are out, loud and early, Phil Helsel, Staten Island Advance, 2009-06-04

I wrote last year about Magicicada, the genus of periodical cicadas, last year, in anticipation of the emergence of Brood XIV in Brooklyn. Alas, they never showed up; they seem to have been extirpated in Brooklyn, historically part of their range.

In any given area, adult periodical cicadas emerge only once every 13 or 17 years, they are consistent in their life cycles, and populations (or "broods") in different regions are not synchronized. Currently there are 7 recognized species, 12 distinct 17-year broods, and 3 distinct 13-year broods, along with 2 known extinct broods, found east of the Great Plains and south of the Great Lakes, to the Florida Panhandle.
- Magicicada Mapping Project

The next brood in the NYC area was Brood II, a 17-year brood, expected in 2013. But it has emerged four years early, in 2009.

Some periodical cicadas belonging to Brood II are emerging in several states along the east coast. ... The extent of this year’s acceleration is not known, but could occur anywhere in the Brood II distribution ...
- Cicadas, College of Mount St. Joseph

Off-year emergence, whether it precedes or follows the expected year, is called "straggling":

The exact causes, or even the prevalence, of straggling is not well understood. Straggler records have long confounded attempts to make accurate maps of Magicicada broods, which is one of the reasons the Magicicada mapping project exists. Among 17-year cicadas, straggling seems particularly common 1 or 4 years before or after an expected emergence (e.g., cicadas emerging in 13, 16, 18, and 21 years), although stragglers with other life cycle lengths have also been found. Straggling has been detected in all seven Magicicada species.
- Stragglers, Magicicada Mapping Project

The historical range of Brood II does not, unfortunately, include Brooklyn.

Similar early risers have been detected all along the Eastern Seaboard, and an Ohio researcher who has studied the bugs for 35 years is sure warmer winters are to blame.


"This is the fifth brood where part of it is coming out early," said Gene Kritsky, an entomologist and professor at the College of Mount St. Joseph in Cincinnati. "When you have a phenomenon that is that widespread, the most likely candidate is some kind of climate-driven response." ...


Parts of broods coming out four years too early is a phenomenon first documented in 1969 in Chicago, but prior documents suggest it may have occurred earlier. The last time Brood II came out in full force was in 1996, and most of that brood still will burrow out of their underground homes on time in 2013.


Kritsky, who has studied cicadas for 35 years and expects his most recent findings to be published this month in Proceedings of the Indiana Academy of Science, said the fluid disruption caused by warm winters affects cicadas only during their first five years of life, and it always results in emerging four years too early.
- Cicadas are out, loud and early

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Related Content

(Magi)Cicada Watch, 2008-05-21

Links

Cicadas are out, loud and early, Phil Helsel, Staten Island Advance, 2009-06-04
Cicadas Appear Four Years Early, Joe MY God, 2009-06-04

Brood II, Magicicada Mapping Project

Brood XIV, Massachusetts Cicadas

magicicada.org
Cicada Central, University of Connecticut
Cicada Web Site, College of Mount St. Joseph, Cincinnati, OH
Chicago Cicadas
Magicicada, Wikipedia
Mathematicians explore cicada's mysterious link with primes, Michael Stroh, Baltimore Sun, May 10, 2004

I feel so dirty just reading the headline

CITY'S GIANT INSECT ORGY
That's how the NY Post - renowned for its lurid, sensationalizing headlines - announced the anticipated emergence of Brood XIV.

The content of the article was considerably more sedate and on-point:

After living six inches underground since 1991, millions are about to come to the surface across the Northeast: The males will sing their distinctive song, the females will swoon, and then they will mate and die.
...
This particular brood stretches from Georgia to Massachusetts. Locally, they are concentrated on Long Island, although some might remain in Brooklyn and Queens.

There have been strong, localized emergences east of us on Long Island, in Suffolk County. Unfortunately, there's been no signs of Brood XIV in Brooklyn or Queens. The sole Brooklyn report, from Bay Ridge, has not been substantiated and is likely a false report. I'm afraid Brood XIV may be extirpated - locally extinct - from New York City.

Related Posts

(Magi)Cicada Watch

Links

CITY'S GIANT INSECT ORGY, by Jeremy Olshan, NY Post, June 5, 2008

(Magi)Cicada Watch

Note: I'll continue to update this as I learn more.

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Photo of Brood XIV Magicicada septendecim taken May 18, 2008 in West Virginia by Jason Scott Means


I just learned (from News12 Brooklyn) that the 17-year cicadas are about to return to Brooklyn. There have already been sightings on Long Island, in Otsego Park in Deer Park. There have also been sightings to the north of the city, along the Hudson Valley.

Magicicada is the genus of the 13- and 17- year periodical cicadas of eastern North America. These insects display a unique combination of long life cycles, periodicity, and mass emergences. They are sometimes called "seventeen-year locust"s, but they are not locusts.
- Magicicada, Wikipedia

13 and 17 are prime numbers. Evolution "discovered" prime numbers.

Periodical Cicadas appear earlier in the year than our regular, annual "dog-day" Cicadas, which don't show up until later in the summer. If they are still here, we should begin to see signs of them now, certainly by the end of May. They can be readily distinguished by their red eyes (dog-day Cicadas have black or dark brown eyes), darker bodies, and smaller size. For comparison, here's a photograph I took of a dog-day cicada, Tibicen canicularis, in my backyard last October.

Dog-day cicada - Tibicen canicularis, Flatbush, Brooklyn, October 2007


17 years ago, in 1991, I still lived in the East Village in Manhattan. We didn't have them there. I didn't move to Brooklyn until the next year, 1992, so I just missed the last cycle. They won't be here again until 2025. I'm hoping - yes, hoping - that I'll be in the thick of things here: detached houses, lots of open ground, and just a half-mile or so from Prospect Park.

Periodical cicadas are identified by broods categorizing the species, cycle, and years and range of a particular emergence:

In any given area, adult periodical cicadas emerge only once every 13 or 17 years, they are consistent in their life cycles, and populations (or "broods") in different regions are not synchronized. Currently there are 7 recognized species, 12 distinct 17-year broods, and 3 distinct 13-year broods, along with 2 known extinct broods, found east of the Great Plains and south of the Great Lakes, to the Florida Panhandle.
- Magicicada Mapping Project

Brooklyn is part of Brood XIV (Brood 14), one of the 17-year broods. We can expect to see (and hear) any or all of the three 17-year species in Brood XIV:

Three 17-year cicada species exist, each with distinctive morphology (shape and color), behavior, and calling signals:

• Magicicada septendecim (L. 1758)
• Magicicada cassini (Fisher 1851)
• Magicicada septendecula Alexander and Moore 1962

- Magicicada species, Magicicada Mapping Project

All three species are on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species as low risk, but near threatened, ie: close to being "promoted" to vulnerable species. Because they spend most of their lives underground, periodical cicadas are at risk from development which covers their routes to emergence at the surface. When they emerge, without sufficient woody plants - trees and shrubs - upon which to feed and lay their eggs, that generation will be irreversibly reduced for at least another 17 (or 13) years. Some broods are already extinct. Consider, for example, this observation from an unidentified entomologist:

Have you an ideal of the absolute in hopelessness? Well, let it be said that the house in which you live is comparatively new - built within 17 years. The ground on which ti stands was originally woodland. In the Summer of 1902 all the tree thereabouts were full of seventeen-year locusts. Eggs were deposited in the branches, the larvae came out, dropped lightly to the ground, and dug in. The long period of subterranean existence is almost ended. In the summer of this year the insects will start toward the light and air - and will come in contact with the concrete floor of your cellar! There may be another situation as hopeless, but certainly none more so.
- New York Times, June 23, 1919

You can help

If you see or hear periodical cicadas, you can report your observations online. The reporting page has photos so you know what to look for. Adult periodical cicadas are easily distinguished from our annual, "dog-day" cicadas by their red eyes, as shown in the lead photo above. The species pages, listed above, also have audio recordings so you know what to listen for.

[goo.gl]

Links

Brood XIV, Massachusetts Cicadas

magicicada.org
Cicada Central, University of Connecticut
Cicada Web Site, College of Mount St. Joseph, Cincinnati, OH
Chicago Cicadas
Magicicada, Wikipedia
Mathematicians explore cicada's mysterious link with primes, Michael Stroh, Baltimore Sun, May 10, 2004

News

Hear that cicada chorus, taste that cicada crunch, Cape Cod Times, June 11, 2008
Cape is again abuzz, Boston Globe, June 10, 2008
New brood on its way to the top, Jennifer Smith, Newsday, June 8, 2008
Dogs rejoice, people duck: Cicadas are back, Columbus Dispatch, Ohio, June 7, 2008
City's Giant Insect orgy, NY Post, June 5, 2008
After 17 years, cicadas ready to rumpus, Cape Cod Times, Massachusetts, May 31, 2008
It's the year of the cicada, South Coast Today, Massachusetts, May 24, 2008
Noisy return of cicadas expected after 17 years, Jennifer Smith, Newsday, Long Island, May 22, 2008
Amorous singing cicadas grate on nerves, News & Record, Greensboro, North Carolina, May 20, 2008
Cicadas looking for love, Centre Daily Times, State College, Pennsylvania, May 19, 2008
Singing cicadas emerge in 13 states, USA Today, May 18, 2008
The cicadas are coming! The cicadas are coming ... again!, Wilimington News Journal, Ohio, May 14, 2008
Cicadas coming to Clermont County, Community Press & Recorder, Kentucky, May 14, 2008
Coming Soon: The song of the cicada, New Albany Tribune, Indiana, May 10, 2008
The Kentucky Derby: Beware the Year of the Cicada, Minyanville, New York, May 2, 2008
Scientist awaits cicadas' noisy return, UPI, April 25, 2008