What's Making All That Noise?
A Brief Look at Tibicen Canicularis
by Mary Beth Litrico / Artwork by Walter Hunt

Here on Amelia Island in the late summer and early fall you will hear the deafening noise of cicadas. Several years ago, when the Dupont tennis exhibition was played here in the month of September, some players had such difficulty with the noise they would project tennis balls or exclamations into the trees in hopes of shushing the cicadas. That didn't work for long.

We have the annual cicada here, also called the "dog day" cicada, "locust" or "harvest fly." The males make the noise to attract females to mate. It is also thought that the deafening chorus repels would-be predators. After mating, the female deposits eggs in small twigs of shrubs or trees. Young will hatch in about six weeks or may over winter. Gravity takes them to an underworld life of up to two years. 

Illustration by Walter W. Hunt © 1998. Waterwheel Art Studio, 316A Centre Street _____________________________

Under the soil, the nymphs will suck tree roots for nourishment. When they are ready, the nymphs emerge upward to the trees. This is when you may find discarded shells on tree trunks that no longer fit the burgeoning adult. The periodical cicada nymphs remain underground for 13
or 17 years before ascending to the tree canopy. We have choral performances every year with the annual cicadas.

The "concerts" are only in light. They retire after dusk. The cicada symphony season really gears up in late August and September and dies out in October. The males continue to sing after mating. Just how loud are these concerts? Well, the noise has been recorded as producing 80 to 100 decibels at a distance of 60 feet. That's like listening to a jackhammer or an underground train arriving at a station.

As our Florida autumn comes, the tired adults drop from the trees. The author's dog enjoys catching them and muffling their buzzing. It must tickle his mouth, as he spits them out often. By the time the dog can get to them, they are tan and listless looking. In their prime they are a greenish hue with sheer wings. They are pretty large; about 1-2 inches long, and they look like a huge, stocky fly. A species on Malaysia has a wingspan of up to 8 inches!

The oldest record of a cicada swarm is the 1634 appearance in New England of "locusts." Early colonists were familiar with the biblical story of the locust plague in Egypt but didn't know that cicadas do not eat foliage. They only suck juices from roots. Adults may eat by inserting mouth parts in tree bark. The females can damage stems when laying eggs, and there is some thought that the nymphs may spread plant virus disease.

Some cultures really liked this noisy fellow. The ancient Greeks and Romans often kept cicadas in cages. The Greeks also had a saying: "Happy are the cicadas lives, for they have such voiceless wives." The author refrains from comment about loudmouthed husbands.

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