The Fourth of July has come and gone, and in most places, the Brood X emergence is drawing to a close and the carcasses of Magicicada dot the landscape like so many discarded red Solo cups. I heard one last, lonely male calling at Sharon Woods on July 2, but it's been eerily quiet around the house.

If, like me, you're experiencing a bit of cicada withdrawal, it might help to focus on those signs of hope for the next emergence: lots of posts of flagging are beginning to appear, and you can observe the characteristic slits left in twigs by ovipositing cicadas. You can also dissect flagged twigs for an observation of eggs; eggs in broken-off or dried-out twigs are already doomed, so this will not affect the next generation, and it's really interesting to see how neatly the rows of eggs are deposited within the incisions (see https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/84594745).

The nymphs will begin to hatch within six to ten weeks of egg-laying, so that's something to watch for, too. I have yet to see a live hatchling, but other cicada enthusiasts have had luck with keeping cuttings of live, egg-bearing twigs in a vase of water on a black cloth; that way, the white nymphs show up when they hatch and fall to the dark surface.

Also, let's take a moment to appreciate the awesome power of citizen science in general and iNaturalist in particular. For all the years preceding this one, 2,836 observations of Magicicada had been reported on iNat. This year alone, staggeringly, 19,616 observations were added! Obviously, some of this has to do with improvements in technology and the increasing availability of smartphones and their cameras, but it also reflects a growing interest in natural history and enthusiasm for learning about the world around us.

The number of observations added to this project continues to grow as more observations are reviewed. You can help with this process by adding annotations to your observations of adult cicadas and their calls; all research-grade observations of Magicicada with the annotation "Adult" will automatically appear in the project.

If you're the kind of iNaturalist who just loves joining projects (I know I am!), here's something for you: inspired by @billhubick, who's been compiling a list of critters that eat cicadas for the Maryland Biodiversity Project, I put together a traditional project called What's Eating Cicadas? to collect observations of all the organisms that feed on Magicicada during its emergences.

Observations for the project should focus on the predator (or just "eater") of the cicada, not the cicada itself. If you've got a nice example of predation currently IDed as Magicicada, you can duplicate it and add a new ID to create an observation for the predator.

Observations need not be limited to Brood X; if you've got suitable photos from past years and other broods, they'd be most welcome. Thanks in advance for any and all contributions!

It's hard to believe that May is already behind us, and the cicadas are just hitting their stride here in the Ohio Valley. Gene and I spent Memorial Day happily gadding about the historical river towns of northern Kentucky, making a loop to the southwest of Cincinnati and cutting north into Indiana before heading home as the cicadas wound down their chorusing for the evening. We gathered a bunch of records and learned that Memorial Day + Rabbit Hash = hundreds of motorcycles, which competed a bit with the chorusing cassinii nearby.

Adults are now out in Ann Arbor, MI, the northernmost known population of Brood X Magicicada. Even further north, @bipindhinsa has been lucky enough to spot one sclerotized adult and one teneral in the process of ecdysis near London, Ontario - the first record of live cicadas emerging in this location. Previous sightings had been reported in past Brood X years, but with no photos available, they'd always been put down to confusion with Okanagana.

Lots of photos are coming in of blue-eyed, white-eyed, golden-eyed, and even pink-eyed cicadas, as well as quite a few color variants sporting orange patches on their bodies in unexpected places. @zdanko has put together a handy project to collect these observations (https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/aberrant-periodical-cicadas), and you can help out by adding details in the observation fields "Type of aberrant Magicicada" and "Magicicada eye color."

Have fun out there, and enjoy the screaming hordes!

If you're in Georgia, Tennessee, or the Washington, DC, area, you're probably surrounded by lots of cicadas. However, in much of the US, there's been an unusual streak of cold spring weather that has delayed the Magicicada emergence well past its expected date - a phenomenon significant enough that the Weather Channel even featured it on today's app feed, with lots of nice footage of periodical cicadas and a few random annual cicada clips, too: https://weather.com/news/video/cold-weather-delays-arrival-of-billions-of-cicadas?pl=pl-the-latest&fbclid=IwAR12g0K6RxB14HAk6A-AqHMVGfGPPxNzWE22VMCkQCnDFVjOe5eHRLHwQjk

Fortunately, warm weather is on its way, and those of us who have been watching observations pouring in from balmier climes will finally be able to share in the joy that is a Brood X emergence. A few shots of adults and tenerals have even come in from greater Cincinnati, where we hope that the rising temps will bring nymphs out of their burrows by mid-week.

As the emergence continues and numbers grow, consider adding notes from the "Density of Emergence" observation field to your iNat records - tell us how many cicadas you saw or how loud the calling is (when it begins). Just one cicada? Lots of cicadas? Rock-concert-level calling? Recording your experience can help determine whether the cicadas you're seeing are part of self-sustaining populations of Brood X, whether they might be pioneer cicadas "colonizing" a new area, or whether they're stragglers who might belong to a different brood.

The first observations of adult Brood X cicadas are starting to appear on iNaturalist! Congrats to @mateusz_j, @efowl42, and @lovemyleo on your observations. The lateral angle on lovemyleo's observation enabled a species-level ID: the orange patch behind the eye was clearly visible, so we know that adult is Magicicada septendecim. This observation was from North Carolina, very close to the Georgia border, so it's not surprising that this cicada has a bit of a headstart on its northern kindred.

The observation from efowl42 is also particularly helpful, as the presence of Brood X in the Frankfort, KY, area has not (to my knowledge) been reconfirmed since the 1987 emergence. (In fact, the USDA Forest Service map shows Brood X not emerging in KY at all, which is just not right: https://www.fs.fed.us/foresthealth/docs/CicadaBroodStaticMap.pdf)

Some of you may have noticed that I've added a yes/no annotation for "Black patches present?" to some observations of nymphs. This refers to the two oval black patches that appear on the pronotum of nymphal cicadas as they mature (visible here: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/47657740), which are significant because they appear just before the nymphs shed their skins (ecdyse). I'm hoping that the data we gather here will help determine just when the black patches appear, and how long the interval is between the first sighting of black patches and the beginning of the full emergence in a given area.

This is so exciting that I can hardly sit still. Please keep your eyes peeled for adult cicadas emerging in your area, and remember to get shots of those fully sclerotized cicada bellies!

Right now, at this very minute, billions of cicada nymphs are snug in their tunnels, just waiting for the warm spring night when they'll emerge from the ground, shed their skins, unfurl their wings, fly, sing, mate, lay eggs, and die. It's a spectacular phenomenon, and we in the eastern United States are lucky to see it.

Thanks to iNaturalist and the power of citizen science, we now have the opportunity to create the most complete and detailed map in history of a periodical cicada emergence. Although all of the observations of periodical cicadas on iNaturalist provide valuable data, I've put together this project (https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/brood-x-cicadas-2021) to collect the observations that go a step further, including photos or sounds that enable species-level identification of individual cicadas or choruses.

This data and genus-level observations of Magicicada for 2021 will be pooled with records from Cicada Safari, a free smartphone app developed by Dr. Gene Kritsky* and the Center for IT engagement at Mount St. Joseph University in Cincinnati, Ohio (cicadasafari.org).

Ideal observations for this project should include photos of the underside of the cicada. We all love to get that beautiful photo of an unmolested cicada perched on a branch with the morning dew beading its gossamer wings, but that's not gonna help with species ID. We need to see that cicada belly! (Lateral views are also helpful.) Species are differentiated by orange markings that appear on the abdomen and pronotum:

• Magicicada septendecim: orange patch behind the eye; orange pleura; orange bands on abdomen that are usually about half the width of each segment, often with fuzzy edges
• Magicicada cassinii: no orange anywhere on the body; all black
• Magicicada septendecula: tidy, narrow orange bands on abdomen, generally less than one-quarter the width of each segment; no orange on pronotum or pleura

Sounds are also useful for species-level ID, especially if you can get one male singing on its own.

Observations will be added to the project automatically if they meet its criteria, but if you join, you'll be in the loop to see journal posts and get updates on cicada sightings. Thanks in advance for all your contributions!

*Full disclosure: he's my husband. :)