Cicada-Tomat-Uh

•

Swamp cicada

I   J   A   M   S       H   A   P   P   E   N   I   N   G

Sunday, August 9, 4 p.m. 

Cicada-Tomat-Uh

(Ages 5 and up) After spending a three years underground, the cicadas are out and about. Enjoy a summer afternoon with Ijams senior naturalist and storyteller Stephen Lyn Bales (that would be me) as he searches for buzzing dog-days cicadas, a.k.a. jarflies.

We’ll sip “cicada juice” and enjoy fresh tomato sandwiches—Sunbeam bread with Duke's mayonnaise. (B.Y.O.B. Bring your own bologna.) while learning the different species and each of their unique buzzy songs that are produced by vibrating their abdomens. 

Fee: $3 for members and $6 for non-members. Pre-registration is required; please call (865) 577-4717, ext. 110 to register.

The five common local annual species are:
 

1) Swamp cicada
(Neotibicen tibicen)

2) Scissor grinder cicada
(Neotibicen pruinosus pruninosus)

3) Robinson's cicada
(Neotibicen robinsoniaus)
 

4) Lyric cicada
(Neotibicen lyricen)

5) Linne's cicada
(Neotibicen linnei)  

And we'll look at katydids, those raucous nocturnal singers that hide in plain sight by mimicking leaves. 

•