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May 29, 2007
No Cicadas Here - Brood XIII in MI or Not?
The above Magicicada septendecim photo was taken by me in Ann Arbor when cicadas from Brood X emerged in 2004. This year, Brood XIII Magicicadas are emerging in N Illinois, S Wisconsin, and possibly, in Iowa. The map on our Cicada website shows some emergences in extreme SW Michigan, and according to Tom Moore, an emeritus curator here at the UMMZ, the map is in error, as it contains erroneous records from an old paper by Marlatt (1907). I certainly can understand how bad information stays promulgated in the literature, and it happens all the time. As my friend Dick Alexander has stated, "A bad fact is a horrible thing." (and if I misquoted you, I am sorry...).
What needs to be done is to get modern records. Researchers tend to go to where previous records show emergences. So, if you know that Lake County, Illinois has 17-yr cicadas, that's where you go if you have limited time to do experiments, etc. I don't doubt that there may have been 17-yr cicadas at some point in SW Michigan -- especially inland away from the sand dunes. However, the area has been heavily agriculturized over the past 100 years, and some areas have also gone back to woods. Have small pockets of Magicicada survived? The only way to know is to go and traverse the area and listen. Lacking that... if you live in that area of the state, tell me that you have them and show me the specimens. It would be nice to know, either way. The next emergence would be in 2024. I'm going to be an old man by then.
Posted by mfobrien at May 29, 2007 11:03 AM