The...Horde? Swarm?

[hwango]

I keep thinking that it's raining. The clicking sounds against the window are more like that of light sleet or icy snow, but with this heat that's obviously impossible. But it's not rain, either. It's dozens (if not hundreds) of little bug ramming themselves against the glass. They don't look like most beetles, nor are they moths - the wings are definitely folded up on the back. Some kind of short, squat little grasshopper relative? They aren't on any of the plants on the porch, so they aren't some ravening blight that will leave the neighborhood totally defoliated, thankfully. But they're definitely eerie if for no other reason than their alarming numbers. I'm not going outside to catch one, I can tell you that for certain.

Comments

[unferth.livejournal.com]

The 13-year cicada brood XIX is swarming further south, but they don't make it this far north.

Fun trivia fact: all long-duration cicada broods are on prime number cycles (13 or 17 years, generally) for sound evolutionary reasons.

I last ran into them in 1987 - and let me tell you, fifth grade is just the right time for a mass insect population burst to be great fun.

[hwango.livejournal.com]

Well, these are awfully little to be cicadas anyway, so I don't think I have a lost swarm. They're about the size of a pencil eraser, and I remember cicadas being rather larger than that. Their backs are peaked more, too - cicadas are more flat/rounded. I don't know, their identity will probably remain a mystery. I just hope they're nothing horrible, considering how many of them there are.

[unferth.livejournal.com]

Yeah, from what I remember cicadas are rather more on the order of a thumb-length. Even recalibrating for being 35 rather than 11, that's probably not what's going on.

The internet being what it is, there's a site for this:
http://www.whatsthatbug.com/

I'm not even sure it'd be helpful at all, I just like knowing that there's a site devoted to answering that question.

[hwango.livejournal.com]

After some poking at the internet for a bit, I strongly suspect that they are some variety of leafhopper.

[fenris-lorsrai.livejournal.com]

we have so many leafhoppers swarming on the windows at night down here in CT, it looks like someone splashed mud on the window... til you realize it's MOVING.
we also have some giant mayfly/troutfly variety this year that seems to be swarming due to the unusually wet weather/ They're freakish looking.

[gunthersdncemix.livejournal.com]

Spoooooky! If you're able to get a pic, preferably safely from behind a window or something, I can send it to my biologist professor peeps. :)

I also like whatsthatbug, but it takes forever to scroll through.