Overview
The Dogday Cicada (Neotibicen canicularis), celebrated in folklore as the harvest fly or dog-day harvestfly, is an iconic, vocal hemipteran native to the temperate canopies of eastern North America. Named for its emergence during the sweltering ‘dog days’ of late summer (late July through September, traditionally coinciding with the dawn rising of the Dog Star, Sirius), this robust annual cicada provides the quintessential acoustic soundtrack of the late summer forest. Emitting a high-pitched, electric buzz that rises in volume and frequency before slowly winding down, the dogday cicada’s song is synonymous with humid August afternoons.
AT A GLANCE
- Common Name: Dogday Cicada
- Scientific Name: Neotibicen canicularis
- Category: Invertebrates
- Subcategory: Insects
- Size: Total length including wings 3.5 to 5 cm (1.4 to 2.0 in); wingspan 6 to 8 cm (2.4 to 3.1 in)
- Weight: 1.5 to 3.0 g
- Lifespan: Full life cycle spans 2 to 5 years (mostly subterranean nymph); adult winged stage lasts 4 to 6 weeks
- Diet: Herbivore / Xylem feeder (Adults: Sap from tree branches; Nymphs: Xylem fluid sucked from underground tree roots)
- Habitat: Deciduous hardwood forests, mixed pine-oak woodlands, suburban parks, urban shade trees, and orchards
- Range: Central and Eastern North America (From southern Canada across the northeastern and central United States, south to the mid-Atlantic and west to the Great Plains)
- Conservation Status: Least Concern
Ecologically, Neotibicen canicularis operates as an essential, high-volume trophic conduit between subterranean forest soils and canopy food webs. Spending two to five years underground as subterranean nymphs feeding on xylem sap from hardwood tree roots, dogday cicadas emerge annually in late summer, providing an indispensable, protein-rich feast for songbirds, squirrels, bats, and predatory invertebrates. Most notably, they are the specialized, obligate prey of the massive eastern cicada killer wasp (Sphecius speciosus), which paralyzes adult cicadas to provision underground larval burrows.
Biology and Physical Characteristics
The morphology of Neotibicen canicularis is built for arboreal stealth, powerful flight, and deafening acoustic projection. The body is stout, heavy, and camouflaged in a disruptive mosaic of black, olive-green, and dark brown camouflage, accented by a distinct, dark W-shaped mark on the dorsal thorax. The clear, membranous wings are long and rigid, traversed by prominent green veins and held roof-like over the abdomen. Adult males possess a pair of specialized acoustic organs called ‘tymbals’ located on the sides of the first abdominal segment; by contracting powerful internal muscles up to 400 times per second, the ribbed tymbal membranes buckle inward and snap back, resonating through a large, air-filled abdominal acoustic chamber to produce sounds reaching 85 to 90 decibels.
Behavior and Ecology
Unlike periodical cicadas (Magicicada spp.) that emerge synchronously once every 13 or 17 years in immense, overwhelming broods, the dogday cicada is an ‘annual’ cicada: because overlapping generations develop underground for 2 to 5 years, some adults emerge every single summer. Nymphs burrow out of the soil at dusk, climb vertical tree trunks, and shed their final nymphal skins, leaving behind their iconic, brittle amber-colored exuviae attached to the bark. Adult males sing from high in the tree canopy during the hottest afternoon hours to attract females, who respond with subtle, clicking wing-flicks before mating.
Conservation and Human Impact
Neotibicen canicularis is classified as Least Concern by entomologists, maintaining abundant, resilient populations across eastern North America. It thrives in suburban neighborhoods with mature shade trees, city parks, and rural woodlots, requiring no formal conservation interventions. The primary hazards to local populations stem from excessive broad-spectrum insecticide spraying targeting mosquitoes or tree pests in urban parklands.
Interesting Factoid
The male dogday cicada can vibrate its sound-producing ribs over 400 times per second to create its deafening buzz, which is so loud that the cicada has a special biological muscle that instantly disables its own hearing whenever it sings to avoid deafening itself.