Reed Brook Book- Cicada Study
Did You Know?
HOME
Suborder Auchenoirhyncha
Cicadas are part of the insect order Hemiptera.
Superfamily
Cicadiodea
Ecological Importance of the Cicada
Cicadas are located throughout the United States and beyond. They have been seen around the Reed Brook. Females do a small amount of damage to twigs/branched during the egg laying process. They use their ovipositors to slice the branch and deposit their eggs. This may kill the branch, but does not kill the tree. They lay eggs on 70+ different species of trees but target oak, hickory and apple the most.
Cicadas are also considered "pests" mainly because when they emerge, they are very loud, and there are a lot of them.
When they feed, nymphs drink the fluid from the inside of the tree branches, called xylem. They have to drink a lot of this fluid because it is not very nutritious. They excrete it quickly and shallow rooted plants drink that up. When the nymph boroughs in the ground, it moves water within the soil benefiting plant roots again.
Cicadas also provide a tasty treat for birds and mammals.
Ecological
Importance
Cicadas have large compound eyes on either side of their head. In addition, they have 3 smaller ocelli or simple eyes on the top of their head. They eat by piercing the surface of the plant with mouth stylets (like straws) and sucking the sap up with tubes formed by the concave surface of the 2 stylets.
There are many species of cicadas 12,13 or 17 year classes. The nymphs emerge from the ground together but can have more than one species in an emergence.
Cicadas spend most of their lives underground as “nymphs.” They spend as many as 17 years underground. When they emerge as a large group, they molt. This leaves a shell on a branch. Once the cicada has molted, it may live as short as 1 day and as long as 2 weeks depending on the species. The male and female look very different from each other. Females have a part on her back end that looks like a blade called an ovipositor. This is used for slicing bark on twigs, or splintering sapwood. She does this to make a safe space to lay her 400-600 eggs. When the eggs are laid, she dies.
The male has singing organs on his abdomen. His sound can carry for up to a mile. He also dies shortly after mating.
When the cicada eggs hatch, the nymphs fall to the ground and borough into the soil for 17 years!
Cicadas are considered a delicacy in many parts of the world including the United States. People eat them because they are low in fat and high in protein. When a 17 year class of cicadas emerged in 1987 in the United States, people in ate them fried, stir fried, on pizza and steamed!
Click here to hear the sound of the Pruinosa Cicada
Let’s take a closer look at the form and function of the male cicada sound making organ. When you view the picture, notice the red arrow. This points to the operculum or the protective covering of the sound organs. The blue arrow is pointing to the beak that the cicada uses to drink xylem fluid from plants. It is also used to protect itself from a human or animal. The close up images show the sound making organs. The tymbol muscle is located in the first abdominal segment of the cicada. The reminder of the posterior is hollow, which acts as an amplifier for the sound.
Internal structure of the
Cicada sound making organs
Image Below:
Clicking of tymbals. External (A)
and internal (B) aspect of tymbal
Here is a video of a cicada emerging from the nymph shell as an adult.
Mrs Rivard is a 5th grade teacher at the Day School.
I put this glog together to see if the Brook Book Project would work in this format.
Bibliography:
National Geographic Article 0330_040330 1/29/10 9:05 http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/03/0330_040330_cicadafacts.html
Audio
Click on the name to download the song.
- http://www.mechaworx.com/Cicada/August19th07/T.pruinosa
YouTube
Amazing Cicada life cycle - Sir David Attenborough's Life in the Undergrowth - BBC wildlife
Tags: BBC, Attenborough, David, Wildlife, Nature, Animal, Animals, Insect, Life, Undergrowth, Slug, Ant, Butterfly, Wasp, free, video
There are no comments for this Glog.