The funny thing is that the Ann Arbor News ran an article today indicating that the first Washtenaw cicada sightings have occurred:
The emergence of the periodical cicada in the past week in northeast Ann Arbor and Ann Arbor Township is the first sighting in the state, according to Michigan State University entomology professor Howard Russell ….
They were first sighted last week in Ann Arbor near Oak Trails Montessori School. In Ann Arbor Township, they’ve been spotted near the Matthaei Botanical Gardens on Dixboro Road.
Paul Girard, horticulture assistant at the University of Michigan Matthaei Botanical Gardens, first noticed the mass of “nymphs” (juvenile cicadas) a few weeks ago as they emerged from their underground burrows and started molting. Last week, they started shedding their shells.
“There are millions and millions of them,” he said, against the backdrop of the young male adults’ mating chorus. “They definitely like it when it’s warmer out here, over 65 degrees.”
Their piercing chorus, he said, “sounds like frogs in the spring, but a little different. The first time I heard, it was almost like an old (movie’s) spaceship kind of noise, coming across the sky.”
Coooooool …..
Update: I’m on Cicada Mania (in the June 9 updates section on the main page)! I was the first to send them the Ann Arbor News link about the cicadas, I guess. Woo hoo!
