Cicada Season

Last Sunday I heard my first annual cicada (Tibicen species*) of the year. It was just a quick stridulation in the native flora garden at NYBG. We didn’t hear the bug again during the hour we explored that summer wonderland. This week, I’ve heard a few cicada bursts in Green-Wood and in Sunset Park, across the street from my apartment. No sustained choral whines yet, but soon, my friends, soon. I also saw my first Eastern Cicada Killer Wasps (Sphecius speciosus) of the year, patrolling holes on a patch of the barest looking dirt imaginable in Prospect Park. These enormous wasps, as their name tells, prey on cicadas, feeding them to their young.

I have quite a number of posts on cicadas, mixing the annual and 2013’s glorious appearance of 17-year periodic cicadas on Staten Island. Different genus, different strategies, although it should be noted that the annual or Dog Day cicadas do spend several years underground; the yearly emergences are of different broods. If you want to skip straight to more info on the Dog Days try this post

*It looks like these the Dog Day cicadas, also known as Dog Day harvestflies (flies?) are now considered to be genus Neotibicen.