Annual Cicada (Tibicen resh)
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Although Tibicen resh has no common name other than the generic Cicada, it does carry the distinction of being one of the loudest insects in the United States. According to Sanborn and Phillips, 1995, this cicada produces an alarm call that averages 105.9 decibels at a distance of 50 centimeters. Alarm calls are different than the mating calls that cicadas usually make, so residents don't have to endure loud choruses that go on for hours.
There are no periodical cicadas in the Austin area, which are the insects that emerge every 13 or 17 years. All our species are considered Annual Cicadas because they appear each year. Individual insects, though, live for 2-3 years as nymphs underground, where they feed on roots and other plant material. At the end of this period, they emerge into their adult form. Adults simply mate and lay eggs; most do not eat.
It is not uncommon to witness the emergence of the nymphs, as shown in the sequence below.
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Once the nymph crawls out of the ground, it proceeds to climb up anything it can to gain altitude. Usually, this is a tree, but it can also be the side of a house or other manmade structures. The reason for the height is probably twofold: to escape predators and to have a high enough platform from which to get a heavy body airborne.
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After the nymph secures its clawed legs to something solid, the back of its skin splits and it starts to slip out of the old shell. The emerging insect is very soft and pale. The wings are all wrinkled up and must be pumped full of fluid to expand them so that they dry at full size.
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Once the cicada slips out of its shell, it must wait quite awhile to dry out. They almost always do this under cover of darkness because they would be very tempting morsels for hungry birds. The empty nymph shells are frequently found where they were left after the insects have flown away.
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class: Insecta / order: Homoptera / family: Cicadidae / genus: Tibicen / species: resh
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