Living rain gauges: cumulative precipitation explains the emergence schedules of California protoperiodical cicadas

Abstract

Abstract. Mass multi-species cicada emergences (broods) occur in California with variable periodicity. Here we present the first rule set that predicts the emergence of protoperiodical cicada communities. We tested two hypotheses with a dataset consisting of direct observations and georeferenced museum specimen records: first, that cicada broods are triggered to emerge by periodic ENSO events and second, that brood emergences occur after precipitation accumulates above a threshold value. The period of ENSO events does not explain the observed pattern of cicada brood emergence. Rather, broods emerged given two conditions: (1) that total precipitation exceeded a threshold of 1,181 mm, and (2) that a minimum 3-yr period lapsed. The precipitation threshold is obeyed over an 800 km north-south distance in California and across a variety of habitats. We predict the next brood emergence at one study site in arid Los Angeles County desert foothills to occur in 2020 or, if drought conditions continue, in 2021.

The history and impact of digitization and digital data mobilization on biodiversity research

“…Other emerging opportunities include the layering of various environmental, ecological, behavioural, audio, visual and well-vetted observational datasets (such as those of the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology's eBird project [80]) with digital specimen data to facilitate triangulation of multiple data sources as well as richer research methodologies and outcomes. Recent research [81], for example, has combined historical precipitation data with digitized museum records to correlate the well-documented periodic emergences of cicada populations with rain patterns to predict future emergences. Emergence events are clearly documented in specimen collection records, making them an excellent subject for combining these types of datasets.…”

“…the Darwin Core Standard [48]) [96][97][98]. The critical need for enhancing data quality has led to procedures, research methods and best practices for improving and confirming accuracy and fitness [97,99], including the combining of GBIF and GenBank data to identify potential identification anomalies in mycology [100], address pressing data quality challenges in entomology [96,101], mining and analysing palaeobiology data [102], discovering research uses for vertebrate trait data [103], reviewing and critiquing the efficacy and potential bias in species distribution models using natural history museum specimen data [52], combining El Niñ o-Southern Oscillation and 100 years of museum specimen data for the prediction of cicada emergence in Western North America [81] and the use of images to detect new ant host species for a common parasite [104]. Issues with data completeness have been documented in several studies (e.g.…”

Phylogeny of North America’s largest cicada radiation redefines Tibicinoides and Okanagana (Hemiptera: Auchenorrhyncha: Cicadidae: Tibicininae)

“…The genus is distributed across North America with the greatest diversity found west of the Rocky Mountains (Sanborn & Phillips 2013). Okanagana represents a major cicada radiation in North America that is characterized by protoperiodical life cycles (Chatfield-Taylor & Cole 2017), host plant specificity (Watts 1992), endosymbiont (Campbell et al 2015) and parasite (Soper et al 1976) coevolution, and diverse signaler-receiver behavior (Alt & Lakes-Harlan 2018;Cooley 2001;Stölting et al 2002) that is involved in mate recognition (Chatfield-Taylor & Cole 2019). Further study of the ecological and behavioral complexity of this fascinating radiation requires improved systematics, not only with respect to the interrelationships of species but also among related genera.…”

“…Tibicinoides Distant, 1914, with three California species (Sanborn 2014;Sanborn & Heath 2017), deserves consideration as a component of this radiation as all but one of the species has at one time or another been classified in Okanagana. A well sampled phylogeny of Okanagana and related genera has not yet been attempted owing to their diversity and to the difficulty of sampling due to the sporadic protoperiodical adult emergence of many taxa (Chatfield-Taylor & Cole 2017). Phylogenetic studies to date have not included Tibicinoides.…”