Here’s a special treat for those of us who have been fascinated with the cicada activity this month.
My neighbour, Michael Rayner, amateur photographer extraordinaire, has offered these great photos taken on his balcony recently. They are a huge improvement on my blurry shots snapped on my mobile phone in the dark. Michael’s rotated the actual shots, seems these cicadas are all busily climbing up our balcony pillars.
Copyright Michael Rayner January 2018
Copyright Michael Rayner January 2018
I still can’t make up my mind what variety it is, but am leaning towards a Double Drummer. Wikipedia says that is “the largest Australian species of cicada and reputedly the loudest insect in the world” – and these guys are definitely big and loud.
Here’s a photo of a Double Drummer Cicada from the Australian Museum collection for comparison.
Source: Australian Museum_cicada_specimen on Wikimedia Commons
The sound of an Australian summer has returned at last. All must be right with the world.
YIKES!
I just read up on the Double Drummers… 12-15 CENTIMETERS???
Am SO glad we don’t get those suckers on my side of the continent. 🙂
I was going to suggest Mike’s excellent photos could be of a Razor Grinder (http://www.bowerbird.org.au/observations/108502) but i think you could easily rule one or the other out by their relative sizes. The grinder has a 50 mm wing length so the body would be a tad shorter.
That’s not a variety I’ve come across before. But definitely a possibility. The cicadas were a great phenomen in whatever year it was I wrote that post. None around for a good long time now. Apparently they can incubate for about seven years!
Insects can do some really weird stuff.
Now you mention it i don’t remember seeing many at all over here on the West Coast lately either?
We do still get the Summer ‘buzz’ though – thanks to crickets! Sometimes they even come indoors (UNinvited! How rude!) fortunately though none of these guys, which are also VERY loud. 🙉https://lovewillbringustogether.wordpress.com/2018/12/08/giant-grasshopper-valanga-irregularis/
What fabulous photos! In the old weatherboard house of my childhood, crickets would get down the walls and stay there until they expired , creating a ruckus behind my head as I tried to sleep. But now you mention it, no crickets with us here beside the sea. Frogs sometimes though, and that makes me happy,because I imagine that our local environment must be healthy enough to sustain them
Thank you! (Although it’s more the camera that’s fabulous than me!) Frogs are definitely a good sign! I can hear the big fellows in bed with my windows closed when they are at the bottom of a 1/6th of an acre block! heaven forbid they ever camp outside the window! 🙂
We are so lucky to have Mike here at The Links!
Has Trump been deposed???
???? I don’t think Michael Rayner is on twitter.
Your neighbour has done us all a good turn. Make sure you thank him for us.
He’ll be pleased to have your feedback. It’s a fairly recent hobby. He’s doing a U3A presentation of six shots and will include these two. And another two of the storm I posted about recently.
I have not yet investigated U3A. There is one near me but the gate is always locked when I walk past. Should I venture in?
At least pick up a programme and see if they have talks and activities that will interest you. I am not a member myself, but I did give one talk, and attended another on Jane Austen. It’s run by volunteers I think, so you may even find yourself on the organising committee!
Now that’s a detailed close up! Those wings are beautiful.
It’s good isn’t it. I must ask what zoom he used. But the cicadas do let us get close. It used to be a favourite pastime of children to catch them. In the days when children spent more time outdoors 🙂
Can’t decide whether I think these are beautiful or ugly. I think the delicate patterned wings are very elegant, but the chunky, articulated body and legs area is not!
We had a discussion about scarabs ages back didn’t we? They are a little of that style. You might find the green or yellow ones more attractive. But perhaps you may find inspiration in the wings of the Double Drummer?
Yes, I think there is a scarab quality about them and I think they are all worth further investigation for design ideas.
What area do you live? I’m in South Australia and at the moment there don’t seem to be any cicadas around.
Wollongong, 90 minutes south of Sydney. I spoke to my cousin inland from Narooma (NSW South Coast) and they are inundated also.
We certainly couldn’t say it’s been too cold for them here, we’ve had a week of very high temperatures and it’s set to continue!
Yes I know. I used to live in Adelaide, so am well acquainted with the heat. My girlfriend is on a farm up Port Pirie way. It was the mid-40s on the day I last spoke to her. It is a dry heat, unlike the humidity of NSW, but hot is hot no matter where you are! Perhaps there is not enough vegetation to sustain the grubs.
Plenty of vegetation where we are but not much nice juicy stuff. I have seen/heard Cicadas here but not often and certainly not a cacophony from them.
Perhaps it is not yet their time to shine. Apparently they spend many, many years underground as a grub.
I’ve just read a great article about them on an ABC Science site. We have Manna Gums which one species apparently likes so they might emerge yet.
90 minutes? You on a pushbike?
Oh stop it! 90 minutes, Central Station to Wollongong Station whether taking the train or driving. Strikes, accidents and delays excepted. You MUST know that. After all, haven’t you sussed out your final journey?
Wow
I prefer your ponies Derrik, and the pigs & chooks to say nothing of the moo cows 🙂
🙂 Thanks very much, Brian
All God’s creatures got a place in the choir . . .
I’m am atheist 😈
It’s one of the songs we line dance to. Check this out. Actually, maybe it’s a lovely thing to show YGW https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-iP27eatYxE
Not into “Line Dancing”, was a ballroom dancer, myself, as in Astaire et alia. 😀 😛 😈
Well if my husband would dance I would have a partner and then I could go back to all the ballroom dances I loved such as the La Bomba Tango and the Pride of Erin Waltz, and even those crazy crashing Scottish reels. In the absence of that I have to dance alone, so line dancing is it!
Even Miss Elizabeth Bennet didn’t dance a Scottish Reel, much to the amusement of Mr Darcy
But we didn’t like Mr Darcy at that point anyway – did we??