Manchester, New Jersey

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. 

Neotibicen auletes nymph found in Lakewood, New Jersey on August 13, 2012

 Happy Cicada Hunting!