Cicadas: The Background Noise of SC

What's the Buzz?

Take a listen to the sound of cicadas, or Magicicada, below.


        The average southern night is filled with the unrelenting song of male cicadas, trying to attract a mate.

Annual and Periodical

Not just one wave, but two.

       The Magicicada, or North American cicada, is native to eastern North America, to include SC. Its population consists of twelve seventeen-year broods and three thirteen-year broods. While the term "brood" may sound like an alternative for "species", it is intended to describe a group of cicadas that emerges on the same schedule rather than shares the same attributes. In fact, a brood can contain multiple species of cicadas (UCONN Biodiversity Research Collections: Periodical Cicadas).
       Periodical cicadas will emerge from the ground in these broods every thirteen to seventeen summers after living underground, tunneling, and feeding on roots. At this stage, they are called nymphs. Once they emerge from the ground, however, the nymphs climb trees, molt, and become adult cicadas. About a week later, the male cicadas will begin to dominate the soundscape with their loud mating calls. After two cicadas mate, the female will make an incision in a nearby tree to lay her eggs so that the nymphs that hatch can obtain nutrients from the xylem of the tree. After an adult male and female cicada mate, they both die shortly afterwards, and the nymphs that hatch as a result of their mating will crawl down the tree and burrow into the soil. The cycle then repeats (Periodical Cicadas: The Smithsonian).
       Annual cicadas are different. They follow the same mating practices and life cycle, but do not emerge in broods. Rather, they come up each summer (as the name annual might suggest).

Cicada Concerns?

Is this bug all talk and no walk?


       Cicadas are large, loud bugs, and our fight-or-flight systems usually tell us to stay away from such insects. But while cicadas can be a frightening sight, especially in the waves that periodical broods emerge in, they pose no physical threat to humans: Cicadas are not known to be harbingers of pestilence, nor can they bite or sting.
       However, cicadas can do some damage to the trees on which they lay their eggs, creating the oviposition scarring that you see to the right (NC State Extension: Annual and Periodical Extension).
       The biggest complaint about cicadas? Simply put, their noise.




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Kudzu: The Big Green Monster

Image
A Common Sight What's all that green stuff over there?        It sprawls alongside highways. It carpets entire swaths of forestry. It's everywhere, and it's important enough that in my third-grade South Carolina musical, we sang an entire song about it. It's Kudzu.       What began as a decorative plant native to Asia has ended in the harmful consumption of much of the American Southeast's natural environment: Kudzu is a vine that, "[o] nce established, [...] grows at a rate of one foot per day..." according to The Nature Conservancy . This quality has naturally lent itself to a fast and far spread, depicted in the graphic below, but it begs the question: How exactly did kudzu go from being an exotic porch plant to an invasive species?  https://www.aces.edu/blog/topics/forestry-wildlife/the-history-and-use-of-kudzu-in-the-southeastern-united-states/ Kudzu in America How did it get here?        The Forestry and Wildlife section...
Read more

The Iconic Carolina Wren

Image
Background Common throughout the southeast, but special to one state.        If you grew up in South Carolina, there's one thing you never failed to hear in the mornings. Perhaps it drove you crazy, or was a comforting component of your childhood soundscape. Regardless of your personal feelings towards the fairly incessant call of the state's official bird, it is undoubtedly an ever-present part of South Carolina's environment.         If you are unfamiliar with the Carolina Wren song, think you might know it but are not quite sure, or want to be reminded, you can find examples at Cornell Lab's All About Birds  Carolina Wren Sounds . What is the Carolina Wren up to? Where does the Carolina Wren go? What are its habits?  Carolina Wrens are non-migratory birds, and they mate for life, so they are fairly stationary. Their habitat encompasses the entirety of the American southeast and even stretches into South America.   ...
Read more

A Cooky Coastal Creature

Image
 The Lettered Olive It's hard to see, but it's there.        The Lettered Olive, or Oliva sayana ,  is a predatory snail (the picture you see on the left is its shell, the picture you see on the right is the mollusk component with  the shell), and South Carolina's state shell! The Lettered Olive looks like an ancient creature, especially considering that it gets its name from markings that bear similarities to Egyptian hieroglyphics — but it wasn't discovered until 1834 by Dr. Edmund Ravenel, a native Charlestonian. While they are common in SC, they are not just found along one state's coast. Rather, they are native to the entire West Atlantic coast.        The Lettered Olive shell is special to many collectors because of its high luster (which comes from the snail's shell-building tissue), and is a fun find or those who engage in shelling! I grew up with shell display cases around the house (see picture below), because my mother w...
Read more