On your marks, get set....

GOOO!?!?! Some exciting things are brewing... Please read on!

The cicada season is almost upon us. Or has it already started?? There was a report of a Silver Princess (Yoyetta celis) calling in Inner West Sydney today with still a full week of winter to go. Absolutely crazy. An effect of climate change or perhaps a more male that misread the weather report? In Sydney today it was a full 7°C warmer than the long-term average!

We are about to embark on this project's 5th season! I might just have to bake a cake for it because I didn't expect this when I first created the project. I have seen the interest in cicada rise to new heights. There has been an amazing response by so many people, and I am quite humbled to know that so many people love cicadas!

During the "off-season", we have started to analyse the data over the past four seasons and there are some neat trends starting to emerge. We are seeing latitudinal trends in different cicada species, and some species are more likely to be observed on native plant species, while there are a few cicada species that are frequently observed on exotic plant species. Over the four seasons, the most commonly reported plant genus with a cicada observed is Eucalyptus, followed by Callistemon and Melaleuca. Possibly no surprises there! We are continuing to write up these and other data for publication.

I have also been hard at work at writing the 2nd edition for my book, "A photo guide to common cicadas of the Greater Sydney Region". Building on the great response and helpful feedback, this upcoming edition will be a lot more comprehensive in terms of information. At the same time it will be in an easy to understand format with more than 40 species included!!

In order to make a more complete field photo guide book, I am calling for anyone who is willing to send me photos of cicadas they have captured in the field. I will be combining several of these "field photos" with my "studio" macro shots that show details and colours up close. If you have any photos are are happy to send them to me for possible inclusion in the upcoming book, please send them to me at nathan@cicadarama.com. All images used will have photo credit.

And finally on that note, last year we launched Cicadarama on social media as a platform for talking and sharing anything cicadas! Feel free to follow us at www.facebook.com/cicadarama

Posted on August 24, 2019 10:46 AM by njemery