Tuesday, August 27, 2019

Big Bug Summer Takes a Sexy Turn

It's been a Big Bug Summer this year, by which I mean a big summer for bugs and a summer for big bugs. Even this month's Secret Science Club lecture was about insects, and typically large ones to boot. This weekend, Big Bug Summer got sexy when I found a couple of cicadas, each about as big as your thumb, making the 'beast with two abdomens':




I have to admit somewhat sheepishly that I can't supply a Latin binomial for these (true) bugs, but cicada identification seems pretty daunting for the layperson. Poking around the NY State DEP website, I saw a picture which suggests that these might be Neotibicen canicularis.

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