Thought cicadas were gone for the season? Think again! Meet the dog-day cicada.

Goodbye Brood X, hello Dog-day cicadas!

Molted exoskeleton of a dog-day cicadaHeather Jauquet/Author

That’s right, Marylanders, there is a new cicada in town. I thought I was done writing about them, and you thought you were done reading about them. But we are both wrong. So move over, Brood X. There’s a new cicada in town. Here come the dog-day cicadas!

You might have noticed that while the intense, eerie humming of the Brood X cicadas has dissipated, that you can still hear a similar noise in the trees. Sure enough, as we were walking around our neighborhood in Montgomery County, we saw new cicada casings and a new cicada that looked different from the Brood X cicadas we were accustomed to seeing around the area.

I hear them as I sit here in a high school parking lot, waiting for my son to finish his cross country practice. I hear the dog-day cicadas singing their mating song. It’s not the pulsing synchronized hum of the Brood X cicadas. Instead, it is a more frenetic sound that does not sound as sync as the Brood X.

Dog-day cicadaHeather Jauquet/Author

But this breed is different. What has been emerging since June and will continue to emerge through early September are annual cicadas. They are called the dog-day cicadas because they appear during the hottest and muggiest parts of summer, also known as the “dog days” of summer. Their peak singing also coincides with the time of year when the star “Sirius” of the constellation Canis Major (the big dog) is prominent in the night sky.

The dog day cicadas look different from Brood X. They are larger than the Brood X with black or green eyes, which is different from the tell tale orange-red eyes exhibited by the Brood X cicadas. Their bodies are green, black, and brown. Their wings have green veins.

Like the Brood X, the dog-day cicadas are harmless. The only harm they do is to trees. You may be familiar with flagging now, as Brood X left many trees with brown leaves. Flagging occurs when a female cicada slits a branch with its sharp ovipositor to lay its eggs.

Dog-day cicadaHeather Jauquet/Author

Dog-day cicadas have their own siren song to attract mates. The males make a buzz-like clicking sound by rapidly vibrating outer membranes called timbals found on the sides of their abdomen. The males contract and retract the timbals creating a series of clicks. The hollowness of its abdomen amplifies the sound. It is the males that make the sound to attract their mates. The females stay silent.

The dog day cicadas have a two to five-year life cycle, but every year adult cicadas emerge. The adult cicadas live only for two to four weeks. They do not need much to stay alive. They find sustenance by sucking fluid from tender young twigs.

We have found evidence of the dog-day cicadas from their saw-like whine and the fragile molted exoskeletons they left behind in our neighborhood.

Have you seen any dog day cicadas yet? I can hear them in Montgomery County. What about you? Let me know in the comments!

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