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We first saw the holes when we took the dogs for their afternoon walk. They were about ½ inches in diameter and randomly scattered on the ground. As we kept walking, we saw more holes and recognized them as cicada exits. They begin their exodus when the ground temperature exceeds approximately 64 degrees F.
Looking on the trunks of nearby Pinon trees, we found numerous exoskeletons. After coming out of their holes, they climb up onto something that allows them to get a firm grasp for their molt to adulthood. We have found them, on not only trees and larger vegetation, but firmly stuck on the stucco of our house and on the stuccoed straw bale walls.
They are not locusts, which are a type of grasshopper, but in the order Hemiptera, an order of true bugs that have a forewing thickened and leathery at the base and membranous at the apex. Some believe the diaphanous wings are able to block ultraviolet rays.
There are two general categories of cicadas: the periodical, which have extremely long life-cycles of 13 or 17 years, and the annual cicada species which we have here in New Mexico, that re-emerge each year, having a 2 to 8 year cycle.
The annual cicada are not as developmentally synchronized and therefore the group emergence is not as great as the periodical cicadas, which can be as high as 1.5 million per acre.
Our annual chorus of males is not as loud as those back east and in the north, where the periodical cicadas live. The males, once they molt, begin producing species-specific calling songs and congregate to establish aggregations that are sexually attractive to females. These songs, produced by special structures called tymbals, are found on the male’s abdomen. A tymbal is also a kettledrum, an apt naming considering the din that comes from the numerous males seeking mates.
While underground, cicada juveniles, called nymphs, suck root fluids for food and when above ground, adult cicadas feed on living woody vegetation with a piercing-and-sucking mouth part just behind the forelegs.
Once mated, the females excavate a y-shaped egg nest in living twigs and lay up to 20 eggs. Six to ten weeks later, the first-instar nymphs drop from the trees, burrow underground, locate a rootlet for feeding, and remain there until their species timetable for re-emergence arrives.
Later that evening neighbors arrived for solstice, as they had at the equinox gathering, full of enthusiasm and good cheer. Although we all live in relatively close proximity, everyone had been busy with his or her own projects; building a home, a gardens, or building or repairing something as seems to be needed when living in a rural area. After greetings and updates on what everyone had been busy at, we all gathered just after sunset in our newly constructed fire pit.
The sunken Kiva-like fire pit is 8 feet in diameter, made from sandstone rock. The seating is 19 inches high with a sitting area 19 inches wide and an 8-inch backrest on one side made from four courses of old Gallup bricks scavenged from a farm dump, and huge flat limestone rocks on the other side. In the center will be a sunken fire pit with a cooking rack.
As the longest day turned into the shortest night, we sat around the fire pit and read a short paper on solstice trivia. Others told stories of times of import in their lives, sharing humor and reflections. As is the case with most of these gatherings, the next event was eating dinner. We had hot dogs made into our famous “butter dogs” by cutting them in half, barbequing them flat, and topping them off with a layer of melted cheese.
Accompanying them was a big potato salad, chips, assorted beverages, and topping off the meal with brownies for desert. We sat talking and laughing late into the evening as one of our truly talented neighbors played the guitar and sang. Later on, everyone strolled off into the cloudy, but moonlight, night and headed home.
Periodic cicadas emerge at the same time because they have become “developmentally synchronized.” Over a period of time, up to 17 years, re-association has set their internal clocks to sound the alarm to gather.
Our eyes and minds are watchful of the declining sun that now having passed its apex, will soon reach its autumn equinox, sounding an alarm for us to again gather and share the develop-mentally synchronized aspects of our lives, celebrating and creating a horology that with each re-emergence will remind us that we have grown.
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