Category: Cicada Mania

You can use these images if you’re in the media, you’re an educator, or anyone else.

In case you want cicada images and videos to share, we’ve uploaded images to social media sites to make it easy to share the images. These images are often in the Creative Commons (License: Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic.
), or otherwise owned by Dan Mozgai, and Dan doesn’t care if you share them for non-commercial reasons (i.e. fun).
Download all images (11.2MB). Videos are on YouTube.

* Other images, videos, and audio on the site are copyrighted by the people who created that media, and I can’t grant use of their work.

Images and video of Magicicada cicadas (like those in Brood XIII)

Image of a male Magicicada septendecim (periodical/17-year species)

This image is also on Flickr.

Image of a male Magicicada septendecim (periodical/17-year species)

This image is also on Flickr.

Image of Magicicada septendecim (periodical/17-year species)

License: © All Righted Reserved. People can share for non-commercial fun. Commercial enterprises (like the Media) need to ask permission to use mailto:cicadamania@gmail.com.

This image is also on Flickr.

There are more images from the series which I have been allowing the media/press to use with permission and attribution.

There’s an abundance of videos on our YouTube channel, for example:

How To Identify the Species of a Periodical Cicada / “Locust” / Magicicada

License: © All Righted Reserved. People can share for non-commercial fun. Commercial enterprises (like the Media) need to ask permission to use mailto:cicadamania@gmail.com.

17 Facts About 17 Year Cicadas

License: © All Righted Reserved. People can share for non-commercial fun. Commercial enterprises (like the Media) need to ask permission to use mailto:cicadamania@gmail.com.

Images and video of Neotibicen (summertime cicadas in the U.S.):

Do not use these to represent Brood XIII / Magicicada / Periodical Cicadas.

Image of a molting male Neotibicen tibicen (annual summertime species)

This image is also on Flickr.

Image of a female Neotibicen tibicen (top) and female Neotibicen lyricen (bottom) (annual summertime types)

This image is also on Flickr.

Video of a Neotibicen tibicen (annual summer species molting):

License: © All Righted Reserved. People can share for non-commercial fun. Commercial enterprises (like the Media) need to ask permission to use mailto:cicadamania@gmail.com.

Social Media

And like everyone else, we upload content to Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Feel free to share that stuff as well. Knock your socks off.

Hello!

Errors

This website likely has grammar and factual errors. If you find one, feel free to send me an email: cicadamania@gmail.com.

Terms and Conditions, Privacy Policy, etc.

Visit the Terms & Conditions page if you are so inclined. I’m sure the website “uses Cookies”, but I don’t do anything with the resulting data other than to see which pages on the site are the most popular.

Dan Mozgai

My name is Dan Mozgai, and Cicada Mania is my website.

Use this email address to contact me: cicadamania@gmail.com.

I usually have time to answer questions via email, Twitter, Facebook, and phone calls. If I don’t know the answer, I’ll refer you to an expert who does.

Some other places to find me: iNaturalist and BugGuide.

Sharing media on the website

Here are some cicada images you are welcome to share.

Here are some tips for the press planning to report on Magicicada periodical cicada emergence — mostly to steer you away from using photos of the wrong species.

Cicada Mania History

2019 will mark Cicada Mania’s 23st year on the web. Here’s what the site looked like back in 1998 two years after its launch. This is the original logo:

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Cicada Mania started as an online photo album meant to share photos from the 1996 emergence of Brood II, particularly photos from a friend’s outdoor wedding, where the cicadas were an “uninvited guest”.

The 2004 Brood X emergence was a fantastic time for Cicada Mania: highlights included me appearing on CNN, NPR, and WABC radio, and seeing 50,000 site visitors in one day. Here is a transcript of my CNN appearance.

The 2007 Brood XIII emergence was fantastic as well. I finally got to meet fellow cicada enthusiasts and researchers Roy Troutman, Jerry Bunker, Gene Kritsky and Joe Green. I was also interviewed for Fuji TV.

Cicada Mania currently contains over 1500 photos of cicadas (many high-res), videos, sound clips, a blog, plenty of FAQs and articles, of course, t-shirts and mugs, which are my attempt at funding the site.

Some papers I’ve contributed to:

• The periodical cicada four-year acceleration hypothesis revisited and the polyphyletic nature of Brood V, including an updated crowd-source enhanced map (Hemiptera: Cicadidae: Magicicada). Cooley JR, Arguedas N, Bonaros E, Bunker G, Chiswell SM, DeGiovine A, Edwards M, Hassanieh D, Haji D, Knox J, Kritsky G, Mills C, Mozgai D, Troutman R, Zyla J, Hasegawa H, Sota T, Yoshimura J, Simon C. (2018) < PeerJ 6:e5282 https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.5282
• Evolution and Geographic Extent of a Surprising Northern Disjunct Population of 13-Year Cicada Brood XXII (Hemiptera: Cicadidae, Magicicada). Gene Kritsky, Roy Troutman, Dan Mozgai, Chris Simon, Stephen M Chiswel, Satoshi Kakishima, Teiji Sota, Jin Yoshimura, John R Cooley. American Entomologist, Volume 63, Issue 4, 12 December 2017, Pages E15—E20, https://doi.org/10.1093/ae/tmx066
• Psychoactive plant- and mushroom-associated alkaloids from two behavior modifying cicada pathogens. Authors: Greg R. Boyce, Emile Gluck-Thaler, Jason C. Slot, Jason E. Stajich, William J. Davis, Tim Y.James, John R. Cooley, Daniel G. Panaccione, Jørgen Eilenberg, Henrik H. De Fine Licht, Angie M. Macias, Matthew C. Berger, Kristen L. Wickert, Cameron M. Stauder, Ellie J. Spahr, Matthew D. Maust, Amy M. Metheny, Chris Simon, Gene Kritsky, Kathie T. Hodge, Richard A.Humber, Terry Gullion, Dylan P.G. Short, Teiya Kijimoto, Dan Mozgai, Nidia Arguedas, Matt T. Kasson. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.funeco.2019.06.002.

Some articles that mention or are about Cicada Mania:

• 8 Tips to Survive Cicada Season, Popular Mechanics, May 22, 2013
• Spring Warmup Brings Cicadas, Frogs and Worms, AccuWeather, April 24, 2013
• The Cicada-Obsessed Prepare to Scratch a 17-Year Itch, Wired, April 9, 2013
• Waiting in the wings this spring: Cicadas!, USAToday, April 8, 2013
• Yahoo News, They’re (almost) here! The cicadas are coming April 8, 2013
• Waiting in the Wings: Cicadas, Weather Underground, April 3, 2013
• Cicadas Coming to U.S. East Coast This Spring, National Geographic, March 29, 2013
• Midwest braces for cicadas’ song. USA Today, 5/17/2007
• Cicadas Respond to Their 17-Year Cue. The New York Times, May 19, 2004
• Q&A: Cicada Mania. The Star Ledger, October 12, 2007
• Cicadas nature’s current hot ticket. The Chicago Tribune, June 01, 2007
• Cicadas: Amazing, annoying, arriving soon “Big brood” emerging after 17 years. Philly.com, May 02, 2004
• ANDERSON COOPER 360 DEGREES. Aired May 14, 2004
• Cicadas’ return signals a shrill summer season. The Toledo Blade, 4/26/2004
• Wedding Day Woes – A Bug’s Life. NPR May 8, 2004

Roy Troutman

Many of the cicada photos and videos on the site come from Roy Troutman. Visit the Roy Troutman page for links to his images and his contact information.

Supporters

Over the years many people have supported this site, including some celebrated people:

1. Elizabeth McGrath: U.S.A. based artist.
2. Laura Imbruglia: Aussie singer/songwriter.
3. Death Cab for Cutie: U.S. rock band.

T-Shirts & Merch:

A Zazzle store of cicada shirts, blankets and notebooks.

“Keep Calm, They’re Only 17-Year Cicadas” Shirts:

for Men or Women.

Cute Cicada Cartoon

Get it on a mug, shirt, or hat.

Classic Cicada Mania Logo

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Roy’s Magicicada septendecim

Get the Magicicada septendecim on a mug, shirt, pillow, or hat.

Classic Magicicada Illustration

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Roy’s Blue Eyed cicada

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Australia’s Green Grocer cicada

Get Australia’s Green Grocer cicada on a mug, shirt, or hat.

Bug of Mystery

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Here are some gift ideas for humans. Skip to a section: T-shirts & mugs, cicada books, periodical cicada books.

Random cicada things

Insect Mesh Cage/Pavillion

When people ask me where should they put live cicadas, I recommend a Butterfly Pavilion. If it works for butterflies, it typically works for cicadas.

Cicada Books

Cicadas Strange and Wonderful by Laurence Pringle illustrated by Meryl Henderson

Cicadas Strange and Wonderful is non-fiction and well-illustrated. It’s meant for kids, but anyone who collects cicada merch should also get it.

Cicadas of North America: The Season of the Cicadas by Les Daniels.

I’ve known Les since the 1990s. In the early days of Cicada Mania, Les contributed many images to the site. The Season of the Cicadas is his book about North American cicadas and features many of his photos.

Cicadas of Australia: A photo guide to common cicadas of the Greater Sydney region by Nathan Emery.

Nathan Emery and his father David Emery, who has contributed many cicada photos to this site, are experts on the subject of the cicadas of Australia. A photo guide to common cicadas of the Greater Sydney region is Nathan’s field guide. It features a wealth of information and beautiful photos.

Periodical (17 & 13 Year) Cicada Books

A Tale of Two Broods: The 2024 Emergence of Periodical Cicada Broods XIII and XIX by Gene Kritsky

Dr. Gene Kritsky has devoted his life to studying and promoting periodical cicadas. A Tale of Two Broods: The 2024 Emergence of Periodical Cicada Broods XIII and XIX is his book for the two 2024 periodical cicada brood emergences.

Cicada: Exotic Views by Davy Shian.

Cicada: Exotic Views is a perennial classic about periodical cicadas. This book is illustrated with cartoons, like a comic book. It focuses on the diversity of reactions people have to periodical cicadas.

For Kids: Cecily Cicada

Cecily Cicada is an illustrated story about a cicada named Cecily, updated for 2020. Every 17 years the author asks me to promote it on CicadaMania.com. 🙂

At the start of 2018 Australia has been having an awesome cicada season, which should continue through to March, depending on the species and part of the country.

The best months of the cicada season in New Zealand are December – April.

Throughout the world, annual cicada emergences will follow their usual cycles.

Periodical Cicada Emergences

The World Cup Cicada, Chremistica ribhoi, will return after 4 years in Meghalaya, India.

Magicicada cicadas will return in 2018 in New York State after 17 years. Brood VII aka the Onondaga Brood can be found in the Finger Lakes area of New York.

Magicicada stragglers should also make an appearance in limited numbers.

• Brood XXII stragglers, emerging 4 years late, in mid-east Louisiana, south-west Mississippi, south-west Ohio and north-central Kentucky.
• Brood VIII stragglers, emerging 1 year early, in western Pennsylvania, eastern Ohio, and the West Virginia pan handle.

20,000 or so years ago the earth was a colder place. Glaciers covered much of North America, including many states that currently are home to Magicicada, and other species of cicadas. There were glaciers in Wisconsin as recently as 9,500 years ago. The area below the glaciers were dominated by taiga, a landscape dominated by sappy evergreens and grasses (mastodon food). Florida was three times the size it was today.

Map from the NOAA.

What I’m curious about is this:

• Where were the Magicicada 20-10 thousand years ago? Did they exist in a primordial form some place in the primordial woodlands of mega-Florida?
• How did deciduous trees (oak, maple, ask, etc) spread northward, and how did the Magicicada spread with them?
• Did the spread of deciduous trees northward into America play a part in the unusual life cycle of Magicicada, including the long lifecycle and 4 year accelerations?
• Were the Neotibicen and Neocicada also living in mega-Florida or perhaps Mexico, and then spread northward as temperatures rose?
• Were Okanagana able to exist in the colder, evergreen-dominated taiga of the time of the last glaciers?

For some reason this stuff intrigues me. Thank goodness my local library has a Jstor account.

Here’s something for Windows users: cicada cursors.

If you like to customize your PC, you can swap out your cursor with a cursor shaped like a cicada.

Download the cicada cursor it today (download and unzip).

Here’s a tutorial for changing your cursor.

I have no idea if you can change the cursor on a Mac or mobile device.

Update! Try the new Magicicada cursor (.cur file in .zip file)!