Cassini periodical cicadas

Description

All Magicicada species have a black dorsal thorax with red eyes and orange wing veins. Cassini periodical cicadas are smaller than decim periodical cicadas. The abdomen is black except for occasional faint orange-yellow marks on the ventral surface seen in some location.

In a typical brood of periodical cicadas, decim and decula types will be present as well as cassini. The three different types have unique species song-types; they also tend to sing at different times of day, with cassini choruses most likely in mid- to late afternoon, later than decim or decula varieties. The cassini-type song consists of a series of ticks followed by a buzz; it has also been described as sounding like "someone trying to get a lawnmower started."

Magicicada males seek out sunlit vegetation, where they typically gather with conspecific males to form large choruses, alternating singing behavior with short flights. Cassini-type males are unusual in synchronizing these behaviors, so that thousands of males sing their mating song in unison and then fly together.Almost every singing male in a woods containing tens of thousands of singers achieves synchrony with all the others, and the result gives the impression of a gigantic game of musical chairs. A treeful of these insects singing in synchrony is motionless when observed during the great burst of sound caused by insects buzzing together, and then becomes a frenzy of activity between buzzes with nearly every individual changing perches.

The "congregational" singing of males (so-called because it inspires both males and females to congregate) requires this synchrony in cassini-types for its success.

Habitat

Periodical cicadas live in eastern United States east of the Great Plains. Cassini-type cicadas are especially common in the most southwestern populations and are the only 17-year cicada species found in Oklahoma and Texas.

Cassini-type cicadas are most often found in deciduous lowland woods and flood plains, rather than the upland woods favored by other Magicicada.

Ecological impact

Egg-laying by a large brood may cause many twigs to die off but does little long-term harm to mature trees.

Notes

References

References

1. (1852). "On a new species of Cicada". Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia.
2. (8 April 2022). "On the spelling of the name of Cassin's 17-Year Cicada, Magicicada cassini (Fisher, 1852) (Hemiptera: Cicadidae)". Zootaxa.
3. "International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, 4th Edition". ICZN.
4. Alexander, R.D., and T. E. Moore. (1962). [https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/56365/MP121.pdf?sequence=4 The evolutionary relationships of 17-year and 13-year cicadas, and three new species (Homoptera, Cicadidae, Magicicada)]. Miscellaneous Publications of the Museum of Zoology of the University of Michigan 121: 1–59.
5. "Periodical Cicada Page". [[University of Connecticut]].
6. Carter, Janet L. Stein. "Periodical Cicadas". University of Cincinnati.
7. Alexander, Richard D.. (1958). "Studies on the acoustical behavior of seventeen-year cicada". Ohio Journal of Science.
8. Capinera, John L.. (2008). "Encyclopedia of Entomology". [[Springer Science+Business Media.
9. Cook, William M.. (2002). "Periodical Cicada (Magicicada cassini) Oviposition Damage: Visually Impressive yet Dynamically Irrelevant". American Midland Naturalist.