cicadas are loud

So around the start of March, I began hearing this really strange sound at sunset. It sounded like a tinny-sounding siren and always seemed to come from a nearby location which I couldn't quite pinpoint. One day, I asked one of the other researchers what was up with the siren - and was really surprised at their answer. Cicadas are the ones making all the racket! I knew cicadas were loud, but didn't really realize that that is what they sounded like (we don't have cicadas in Alberta).

What is a cicada you ask? This is.

They are one of the most beautiful insects in my opinion - they are big, have long clear wings, and gigantic eyes. Plus, they are hemipterans - which means that their mouthparts are specialized for sucking the juices out of plants (aka - they don't have the ability to bite or sting). I found this cicada while I was searching for monkeys yesterday. It was lying on the road, half-dead. I picked it up with the stick, did a little photo shoot, and then set it safely on a leaf.

The other day, I was with the LV monkeys and me and Chutney were hanging out on this ridge near sunset time. Because I was high up, I could see a huge stretch of jungle below me, and the cicadas started calling way off in the distance. It seems like one will start to call, and then its neighbour will echo it, and that one's neighbour will echo it, and so on, and so on. The sound of their calls started off in the distance, and then the sound moved like a wave towards me. The whole forest was calling by the time the wave reached me. It was awesome. Then Chutney found a cicada and bit its head off. It was still calling when she ate it. nom nom nom.

Anyway, here is a little movie that I took the other day. The video is totally boring - its just a pan of the forest, but you can really hear the cicadas calling all around me.

*buzzzzzzzzz*
Dayna