Oh how I am going to miss Summer & those loud, active nights & days where the air is filled with the sounds of all the insects! It is usually the long, hot, muggy periods that bring out the loudest insect sounds & when the species are most active. Hotter, muggier Summer with warmer nights have much more active & more vocal native nocturnal insect fauna & the hotter days bring out the Cicada species especially.
Ahhh those nostalgic sounds of Summer growing up in rural Indiana day or night......It seems the farther we go into the Summer season the louder it gets, in a good way! Nothing seems more nostalgic & relaxing than hearing the cicadas in the day & katydids at night. They all signal the warmth & Dog Days of Summer. Although their abundant calls will be coming to and end now, I look forward to next Summer, my favorite season.
Indiana is lucky to have among the most diverse cicada fauna in North American as numerous species’ ranges overlap our area. Most were native to deciduous forests & savannas, but a few original inhabited the barrens & prairies, too.
The U.S. also has the most diverse cicada fauna on the planet that fills our air with the sounds of Summer. These are not the Periodical Cicada species, but the Annual cicadas we hear each Summer. There are 7 native Periodical Cicada species native to the state alone.
Here is a dive into identifying our Annual cicada species here in Indiana (all but two are found in our forecast area)…….
I also have some familiar other insects that usually call at night in Summer after this Cicada list. These sounds will be familiar & now you know where they are coming from!
Scissor-Grinder Cicada: Usually calls in evening or before a storm in the afternoon:Another subspecies of Scissor Grinder with the call much faster & the time of song early in mid to late afternoon rather than typical Scissor-Grinder in the evening.
In these links to their songs, scroll down just a hair when you reach the site to click & hear the song:
[https://songsofinsects.com/cicadas/scissor-grinder-cicada]
Morning Cicada:Usually calls in the morning & is occasionally called Swamp Cicada due to its especial preference of bottomland & swamp forests. However, I do hear it in drier, more urban areas too:
[https://songsofinsects.com/cicadas/swamp-cicada]
Robinson’s Cicada:Usually calls mid-afternoon & often on very hot days....rather rare in our viewing area, but more common southern Indiana:
[https://songsofinsects.com/cicadas/robinsons-cicada]
Lyric Cicada:Calls often on hot days in the afternoon-evening & then just evening on other days:
[https://songsofinsects.com/cicadas/lyric-cicada]
Dark Lyric Cicada:Calls more in just the evening & early dusk rather than strictly hot afternoons-evenings like Lyric Cicada. It also is much darker in color than Lyric Cicada:
[https://www.cicadamania.com/cicadas/neotibicen-lyricen-engelhardti-davis-1910-aka-dark-lyric-cicada/]
Linne’s Cicada:Calls in evenings
Southern Grass Cicada:This species is uncommon in Indiana overall & found largely in the southern part of the state. It is rare in our viewing area.
Heiroglyphic Cicada:It sounds like a sickly Scissor-Grinder & calls late afternoon-evening. I hear them in our viewing area, but they are more common Tippecanoe County & southward & have overall higher Indiana occurrence in the southern part of the state:
[https://songsofinsects.com/cicadas/hieroglyphic-cicada]
Dog Day Cicada:Less common in our area, but I have heard them. They are usually around pine trees, specifically Eastern White Pine.
