Welcome new members
Welcome to the new members that have joined us recently. Thanks for signing up!
I thought I'd take this time to quickly run through what the is project is about and how to make a recording.
CICADA ECOLOGY
Despite Australia being crowned King of Cicada Diversity in the world - we have over 750 species, that we know of - we have done extremely little research on them. We have only formally described about a third of the cicadas (around 200-250 species). I am currently involved in a push to taxonomically describe some of these unknown species.
Adding to this, we know hardly anything about the ecological or environmental preferences of cicadas. Why is it that we can hear Silver Princesses and Green Grocers in urban areas, including the CBD, but not others? Have they adapted to urban life better than other species? The plant that a cicada lands on and calls from is important. Does it provide camouflage from predators? Or is there a sugar content in the sap at an appropriate level for the species? I'm interested in where we find cicadas and why.
To this end, I started this citizen science project to share my passion for cicadas with the community. I am trying to take the first steps in uncovering some of the plant preferences of cicadas in Sydney and its surrounds. If this takes off, then there's no reason not to expand it to all of Australia!
HOW CAN YOU HELP?
We already have some fantastic observation numbers for the Silver Princess (around 80). But the more data we get, the more certain we can be of our results. Species will become more abundant, and new species will emerge in the coming month or two, so I am hoping we will keep seeing observation numbers increasing!
The easiest way to record an observation is to download the "iNaturalist" app on Android or iOS. From there, you can sign in and find "The Great Cicada Blitz" project you have joined. When you go into the project's page on the app, you'll see a button called "Checklist" tapping on this reveals the list of most common species you'll encounter in Sydney, the Blue Mountains, Central Coast, etc. From here you can just add an observation of the appropriate species.
If you are unsure what species is calling then you can just select "Add observation" at the top of the list. The great thing about iNaturalist is that you can type something as broad as "cicada" in the species name. The benefit is that if you have a photo or audio recording of the species, then someone else can help you identify the species!
You phone will log the GPS coordinates of the observation. You can choose to add a photo or not. There is also a section at the bottom of the observation form called "Associated plant species". This is a key entry as it will be the data I will use to try and determine what plants cicadas are preferentially calling from. Again, this can be a broad entry such as "Eucalypt" or "Bottlebrush". You don't have to be a Botanist!
To make an audio recording of the call, you'll need to use your smartphone's audio/voice recording app (or download one from the app store). Start recording the call and hold out your phone as close to the call as you can. You then need to upload the audio file to SoundCloud. If you don't have a SoundCloud account then you can sign up for free. One uploaded, you can go to "edit" your observations at "http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/(your username)". From here you can link your SoundCloud account from the option on the right of screen "Add Media" and then "Add Sound". Make sure to then save your observation!
If you wish to learn the calls of the common cicada species then I have placed links to calls on the project here in a post journal post.
Happy hunting, and as always feel free to contact me if you have any Qs at nje.seed@gmail.com
