I like cicadas in June...how 'bout you?
It's hard to believe that May is already behind us, and the cicadas are just hitting their stride here in the Ohio Valley. Gene and I spent Memorial Day happily gadding about the historical river towns of northern Kentucky, making a loop to the southwest of Cincinnati and cutting north into Indiana before heading home as the cicadas wound down their chorusing for the evening. We gathered a bunch of records and learned that Memorial Day + Rabbit Hash = hundreds of motorcycles, which competed a bit with the chorusing cassinii nearby.
Adults are now out in Ann Arbor, MI, the northernmost known population of Brood X Magicicada. Even further north, @bipindhinsa has been lucky enough to spot one sclerotized adult and one teneral in the process of ecdysis near London, Ontario - the first record of live cicadas emerging in this location. Previous sightings had been reported in past Brood X years, but with no photos available, they'd always been put down to confusion with Okanagana.
Lots of photos are coming in of blue-eyed, white-eyed, golden-eyed, and even pink-eyed cicadas, as well as quite a few color variants sporting orange patches on their bodies in unexpected places. @zdanko has put together a handy project to collect these observations (https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/aberrant-periodical-cicadas), and you can help out by adding details in the observation fields "Type of aberrant Magicicada" and "Magicicada eye color."
Have fun out there, and enjoy the screaming hordes!
