Category: Pop Culture

Categories
Lucky Cicada Key Chain Roy Troutman Toys and Amusements

More Lucky Cicada Keychain Images

Back in the 1990’s Archie McPhee/Accoutrements distributed the Lucky Cicada, a toy with a keyring that would sing when you squeezed its abdomen. Its eyes lit up green too.

All we have now are memories and memorabilia, because they aren’t making them anymore. That said, there are manufacturers in China who have the plans and will make them. That’s a story for another day. Thanks to Roy Troutman for the images.

Front and back packaging:
Packaging

The keychain and packaging:
Keychain and packaging

4 different paint jobs. And red eyes! Collect them all!
4 different types

Categories
Arts & Crafts Roy Troutman

Mystery Cicada Object

Roy Troutman sent us photos of this mysterious cicada-shaped object. We don’t know what it is, but it looks cool.

Front:
Mystery Cicada Object

Back:
Mystery Cicada Object

Wings spread:
Mystery Cicada Object

Categories
Arts & Crafts Neotibicen Tacuini (Cryptotympanini) U.S.A.

Neotibicen linnei photo by Tom Lehmkuhl

Tom Lehmkuhl sent us this photo of an uninvited house guest, a Neotibicen linnei cicada.

Tom Lehmkuhl sent us this photo of an uninvited house guest (Neotibicen linnei).

Categories
Arts & Crafts

Cicada Skin Lamps by Gaye Williams

Cicada Skin (exuvia, molts, “shells”) Lamps by Gaye Williams.

Cicada Skin Lamps by Gaye Williams

Cicada Skin Lamps by Gaye Williams

Categories
Arts & Crafts

Vincent van Gogh’s Three Cicadas

People love cicada art possibly more than they love cicadas (my social media posts about cicada art get more views than photos of cicadas).

Here’s Vincent van Gogh’s Three Cicadas. It’s an ink & paper sketch and study. He created it in 1889, in Saint-rémy-de-provence, France. If you want to see it IRL, it’s at the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Vincent van Gogh's Three Cicadas

I’d like to, but I can’t think of something clever to say about the fact that cicadas sing, and van Gogh removed his left ear.

Categories
Genera Insectorum Halloween Platypleurini Rhynchota Zammarini

Cicadas that look like Dracula!

Cicadas that look like Dracula!

Halloween is almost here, and so I created something special for that time of year: a poster of cicadas with pronotal collars that look like Dracula’s collar — or at least Bela Lugosi’s Dracula. Or maybe Dr. Strange?

Download the large 1.4MB version.

The image features the cicada’s species name and where it can be found. To save space, I went with the continent(s) in when the cicada is found in multiple nations or continents.

The images of cicadas come from the Genera Insectorum 1913, Genera Insectorum 1914, and Insecta. Rhynchota. Hemiptera-Homoptera. Vol. I (1881-1905). Old but classic and important documents with plenty of awesome cicada illustrations.

Happy Halloween!!

Categories
Cicada Mania Memes

Cicada Fun Page

This page collects most of the fun stuff on the site. Everything on the site is fun, but these are fun on purpose.

Arts and Crafts

A PDF of cicada images you can download for coloring (PDF 1MB)

What it looks like:

Coloring Book

coloring book

Computer Fun

Magicicada cursor Cicada Cursors Magicicada cursor if you like to customize your PC (Windows). Unfortunately, it’s one of those things that only works on Windows.

Technically you can use CSS to make them appear on desktop web pages as well.

Cicada Experiments

Six Cicada Experiments you can perform.

Use the Periodical Cicada Emergence Checklist to track your enjoyment of a periodical cicada emergence.

Memes

2009-2019 meme

I emerged before it was cool!

I only listen to cicadas on vinyl

Keep Calm – They’re Only 17-Year Cicadas Meme.

keep calm

Get the t-shirt and support this website. for Men or Women.

Brood X emerged in 2004, around the same time the iPod silhouette commercials were popular:

Cicada iPod

Cicada iPod

People worry if cicadas are safe to eat, especially for pets.

dogs love cicadas

This is a cartoon of a dog about to eat a cicada

Do you have a cicada sipping on the root of your Xmas tree?

Cicada Christmas

I remember the first time I became aware of Australian cicadas. I made this image. (Cicadas are not marsupials)
Crikey!

People worry if cicadas will spoil their weddings. This is an image of a cicada bride.

Bride

Cicadas on a Plane. There wasn’t much cicada news going on when I made this…

cicadas on a plane

My minions helping to write the blog:

cicadas helping to write the blog

Categories
Eating Cicadas Magicicada Periodical

Are cicadas safe to eat?

Update (July 2018): A company called Meat Maniac sells cicadas in a can. Don’t know which species, but they have a “nutty flavor”.

Also, send me a box of these cicadas from China… um, I mean Chinese City Tells Citizens to Fight Bug Infestation By Eating Them.

Meat Maniac cicadas in a can

Also, read this amazing story about how Brood VII cicadas helped kept the Onondaga Nation alive during a time of famine.

The original article from 2006:

[WARNING:] Cicadas, 17-year cicadas at least, are well-known bioaccumulators of mercury. If consuming mercury is a concern, you should not eat cicadas.

Dogs, cats, squirrels, fish, and people can’t stop eating cicadas. Are they crazy, or “crazy like a fox”? (Foxes will eat them too.)

Pets and other domesticated animals

This is a cartoon of a dog about to eat a cicada

People want to know: “is it safe for my pets to eat cicadas”. The truth is in most cases your pets will be fine if they eat a few cicadas, however, you still need to be cautious and keep a close eye on your pets. Watch them for odd behavior, and don’t let them gorge themselves. Be cautious: the Humane Society has warned: “Cicadas Dangerous to Pets” [the original link is gone].

Pet-related concerns:

  1. Pets can choke on the rigid wings and other hard body parts of the cicadas.
  2. Pets will gorge themselves on cicadas, and possibly become ill and vomit.
  3. Pets who consume cicadas sprayed with copious amounts of pesticide can and will die.
  4. Pets might have an allergic reaction to the cicadas just as people do.

Bottom line: play it safe, and don’t let your pets eat cicadas if you can help it.

People:

Whether they’re curious, hungry, or doing it for the shock value, people are eating cicadas. Asian peoples have eaten cicadas for centuries, and there are records of Native Americans eating cicadas. People joke that they’re Atkins friendly [also no gluten]. I’ve heard they taste like asparagus, popcorn, minty shrimp, and piney shrimp — YUMMY PINE.

A man in Bloomington Indiana had an allergic reaction to cicadas after eating 30. He was also allergic to seafood — both cicadas and shrimps are arthropods so this makes sense.

[Note to self, “Do it, Dan, don’t be a wimp!”]

People related concerns:

  1. Cicadas are well known bioaccumulators of mercury.
  2. You could choke on their hard body parts.
  3. You could have an allergic reaction. If you’re allergic to seafood, don’t think about eating them.
  4. Do you really want to eat something that’s been marinating in lawn fertilizers,
    pesticides and other chemicals for the past 17 years?
  5. If you get the gout, it makes sense to avoid them.

People related links:

  1. National Geographic: National Geographic News :Low-Fat, High Protein Cicadas: New Health Snack
  2. Stephanie Bailey’s Internet insect cookbook has tips on how to prepare insects for human consumption! [note that the link now goes to an article by Stephanie about eating insects in general.]

Bottom line: You’re not a contestant on Fear Factor [a reality TV show in the 00s]. Why eat cicadas when you can choose from many of the fine menu choices at Applebees [a chain restaurant]?

Fish, turkeys, squirrels and everything else

If a creature has a mouth or some other mechanism to digest cicadas, it likely will try to eat them. Cicadas make great fish bait. Squirrels (yes, they’re nuts for cicadas too), birds, possums, raccoons, foxes, other insects, fungi… they all love cicadas.

Bottom line: let nature do the dirty work and clean your yard one bite at a time.

Tom, Cicada Gormandize:
Tom eats a cicada


Categories
Folklore

An old news story about Prizes for Locusts or Cicadas

Once again I was grinding through the Library of Congress website, and I came across another Cicada story. This story, from the July 21, 1921 edition of the Okolona (Mississippi) Messenger, is a request from the entomologist of the “Agricultural, College, Mississippi” (Agricultural College in Mississippi) for cicadas. Send cicadas to the college and get a prize. Sounds awesome.

The terms cicadas and locusts seem to be used interchangeably, which is common for these old newspaper articles. If you read “locusts” they mean cicadas, in this article at least.

Note that this is from 1921. Don’t send them cicadas today.

Prizes for Locusts or Cicadas

To receive the prizes offer the cicadas or locust must be collected in Mississippi during 1921. They must be mailed to the Entomologist, Agricultural, College, Mississippi, with the name and address of the collector written on the package and a letter must state where and when the locusts were collected. Always give the county.

Prizes for each county 1. For the cicadas from each country in Mississippi 20 cents each for the first ten specimens; 10 cents each for the next 20 specimens; and 5 cents each for the next 40 specimens. We will try to award these prizes promptly upon receipt of the cicadas each day during the summer.

State Prizes; 2. For the largest number of cicadas send in by any one person during the year 1921 $5.00; for the second largest number $3.00; and for the third largest number $2.00. The locusts or cicada should be mailed in as soon as possible after they are collected. Careful record will be kept of all specimens and these prizes will be awarded next fall.

Special Prizes: 3. For a cicada that proves to be a new species, that is not previously know to entomologist, $5.00 for the first specimen; $3.00 for the second and $1.00 each for the next five specimens.

4. For any species of cicada not previously recorded from Mississippi $3.00 for the first specimen; $2.00 for the second, and $1.00 each for the next five specimens.

5. For specimens of the rare small green cicada Okanagana Niridis, $1.00 each for the first ten specimens. The species will most likely be collected in Bolivar, Sunflower, Washington and other Delta Counties during June and July, but may possibly be collected in the other sections of the state during other months.

Okanagana Niridis is actually Okanagana viridis. The meaning of viridis is the color green. Here is a photo.

6. For specimens of Tibicen Linnei $1.00 each for the first ten specimens. This species will most likely be collected in the northern part of the state.

Tibicen Linnei is now known as Neotibicen linnei.

7. For any Periodical Cicada, or 1-year locust collected in Mississippi during 1921, $1.00 each for the first ten specimens. Brood No. 20 of the Periodical Cicada that occurs during May and June of 1921 had been recorded from Georgia, North Carolina, and Virginia, but has never in the past been reported from Mississippi.

This paragraph is the most interesting. They probably mean 1-year stragglers from Brood XIX. (First, I think they mean 13-year or 17-year cicada, not 1-year locust. A 13-Year cicada collected in 1921 would belong to Brood XX (20), which doesn’t exist, and I don’t think it did at the time (I’ll check, may have gone extinct). A 17-year cicada that emerged in 1921 would belong to Brood XII (12) which also does/did not exist. There aren’t any stragglers (4 year) that line up as well. There are four broods that emerge in GA, NC & VA: II which would have emerged in 1928; X which would have emerged in 1919; XIV which would have emerged in 1923; and XIX which would have emerged in 1920 and definitely is also in Mississippi.)

Here’s a chunk of the article:

Prizes

Categories
Eating Cicadas Folklore

Cicada soap and snacks

I came across an article from 1876 in the Bossier Banner titled Edible Insects (The Bossier Banner., June 22, 1876. (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.)). The article covers many types of insects but has at least five paragraphs devoted to cicadas. The article uses the term “locust” interchangeably with “cicada”, and the author does seem to know the difference (see the last paragraph).

The most interesting bit of information is that people might have used cicadas to make soap and cakes.

I believe, in this paragraph, locust may refer to the grasshopper locust, but it could be cicadas as well:

Among the folk-lore of the Khoikhoi you may find this legend: “Faraway in the North-land dwells the great master-conjurer, who, when he wishes to confer a benefit on his people, rolls away a stone from the mouth of a certain deep pit and from it issues a host of winged messengers who soar away to the southward and there surrender themselves as a food to the hungry Africans.” These messengers are the famous locusts of which it is recorded that John the Baptist ate, and which are to-day sold by the cart-load in the cities of Morocco.

The “locust” in this paragraph is very likely cicadas, because of the use of the words “harmless” and “celebrated for its song”:

With how much affection the Romans spoke of the locust! “A little, harmless creature,” says one historian, “celebrated for its song from most ancient times.”

No reference to “locust” was made — definitely cicadas:

The same song was so dear to the Greeks, “because it seemed to give life to the solitude of our shady groves and academic walks, and conveys to our minds the idea of a perfectly happy being,” that they kept the insect in cages, and gave it pet names, as, “The Nightingale of the Nymphs,” “Sweet Prophet of Summer,” “The Love of the Muses.” Then, after all this lavishing of affection, they are it!

Could be either cicadas or grasshopper locusts:

Aristotle, with the smack of the lips, says of the female locusts, caught before the depositing of their eggs, and fried in sweet oil: “Quo tempore gustu suavissimo sunt”— “at which time they are very sweet.”

Sounds like it could be either:

Another naturalist says when the cicadae first leaves the earth they are plump and oily, and used in the making soap. Bread is also made of them, and in Africa a kind of sweet cake. This is probably what Shakespeare refers to when Iago, plotting against the Moor, says, in his wrath: “The food that to him now is as luscious as locusts shall be to him shortly as bitter as coloquintida” — the bitter apple of Crete.

This paragraph makes me think the author knows the difference between cicadas and grasshoppers:

These little, dew-sucking locusts are not to be confused with the strong-jawed grasshoppers, the Heupferde, or “hay-horses,” as Germans call them, and as Martin Luther translated the word from the Hebrew text, for, though used as food, it is the grasshopper that commits such depredations on the foliage.

Read/see the article on the Library of Congress website.