NEOTIBICEN AULETES
Manchester, NJ
This
is a first post for a blog dedicated to the Great Northern Dusk Singing
Cicada - Neotibicen auletes. It is our largest cicada and also difficult to find if there is no large mass emergence at the time. I
am new to looking for cicada which only makes it more difficult.
Luckily a friend, Elias Bonaros, who has really been into cicada for a number
of years greatly shortened my learning curve. It has been a difficult year for
Neotibicen auletes and cicada in general on Long Island. Cicada are usually found high up in a tree, far out of reach. Sometimes the only indication there are cicada in the area is their call. Hearing them is one
thing. Finding them is quite another!
In an effort to find some of the N. auletes I went with Elias to Manchester, NJ to a location known for having the N. auletes.
While driving down we did hear N. auletes calling along the highway in a
few locations. We marked the locations on our maps for future data
points.
After
arriving in Lakewood and doing a lot of searching Elias finally came upon
some N. 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
N. auletes nymph climbing up an Oak Tree. It was the first time him and
I had seen a nymph of the N. 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.
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| Neotibicen auletes nymph found in Lakewood, New Jersey on August 13, 2012 |
Happy Cicada Hunting!
