dog-day cicada (Neotibicen canicularis) at Lake Meyer Park IA 653A6030
The dog-day cicada comes out during the dog days of August - typically coinciding with a stretch of very hot and steamy summer weather here in Iowa. The dog days are so-called because Sirius - the Dog Star - appears in the eastern sky just before sunrise now in late summer and sky watchers in ancient times believed the bright light from Sirius amplified the light coming from the sun rising soon after, causing this seasonal searing heat wave. That does sound like a pretty convincing scientific explanation to me. By the way, the "song" of this dog-day cicada is a very loud high-pitched whine sounding like somebody sawing wood with a chain saw. Try sleeping with a hundred noisy cicadas calling from the treetops around your house now.
dog-day cicada (Neotibicen canicularis) at Lake Meyer Park IA 653A6030
The dog-day cicada comes out during the dog days of August - typically coinciding with a stretch of very hot and steamy summer weather here in Iowa. The dog days are so-called because Sirius - the Dog Star - appears in the eastern sky just before sunrise now in late summer and sky watchers in ancient times believed the bright light from Sirius amplified the light coming from the sun rising soon after, causing this seasonal searing heat wave. That does sound like a pretty convincing scientific explanation to me. By the way, the "song" of this dog-day cicada is a very loud high-pitched whine sounding like somebody sawing wood with a chain saw. Try sleeping with a hundred noisy cicadas calling from the treetops around your house now.