Going up from the Bongcheon 11-dong side
Cicada season is over (except for this female I found yesterday) and it is quiet . . .
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Going up from the Bongcheon 11-dong side
Cicada season is over (except for this female I found yesterday) and it is quiet . . .
Korea News via Google
34 Comments
Nice.
I live in Bongcheon 4-dong. Where is 11-dong?
How can you tell the cicada is a female?
Where do the cicadas go? Do they all die? Do they hibernate? Do they migrate south for the winter?
That is a good question. It is the males that go around making all the noise that cicadas are famous for since that is how they attract females. Here is a link to some recordings of their songs but then, there are many varieties of cicada:
http://www.hydrodictyon.eeb.uc.....es_NA.html
Here is a really good site for cicadas too:
http://www.cicadamania.com/cicadas/
Whitey - Naksongdae station.
thank God I hate those things they drive me crazy. not to mention they are disgusting and I die every time I see one dead on the sidewalk. when I walk under trees I feel like I’m about to get ambushed especially if they get all loud.
Whitey, I just noticed: the web says Bongcheon-dong has only 9 districts but the area I was in was listed as Bongcheon 11-dong. Maybe it is no longer 11 but some other number. Anyway, this trail comes down from the first spring to just behind a Buddhist temple for women that is fairly close to the Kwanack Market.
So, Elise… am I to take it you don’t care much for cicadas, then?
Cicadas don’t migrate south. They emerge from the ground, shed into adults, mate, and die within a few weeks, maybe only days. Their larval stage is quite long- in some parts of the U.S., up to 17 years. They spend all their larval stage underground, and then emerge in the summer as adults. Only few days under the sun. Quite poetic, aren’t they?
Here is some more Korean Cicada porn:
http://www.animalpicturesarchi.....mp;lang=kr
It is amazing how many different songs cicada have!! There is even one called ” Purana metallica”
www2.pms-lj.si/staff/bioacoustics/asian.html
thank God I hate those things they drive me crazy. not to mention they are disgusting and I die every time I see one dead on the sidewalk. when I walk under trees I feel like I’m about to get ambushed especially if they get all loud.
Giant bugs in proximity is a reliable sign of clean air and a robust environmental health.
I highly doubt that inasmuch as Seoul remains unafflicted with either clean air or environmental health.
#11
Science disagrees with you.
Insect species and diversity, particularly in aquatic habitats, are sensitive indicators of environmental health. Thus, both small levels of pollution and recovery after pollution are reflected by changes in the composition of insect communities. Changes in the species composition of terrestrial insect communities are also being monitored as early indicators of GLOBAL WARMING effects.
http://www.thecanadianencyclop.....1SEC822427
I stand corrected. Or, I would if what you just cited supported your comment about giant bugs.
#13
300 million years ago, during the Paleozoic Era, dragonflies with 2-feet wingspans, millipede-like creatures 6 feet in length and other giant insects roamed the Earth. What accounted for their large size? At that time, Earth’s atmosphere was richer in oxygen than it is today. Insects breathe through their exoskeleton via the tracheal system which functions as lungs. The efficiency of this breathing system diminishes as the overall size of the insect increases. In order to support giant bugs, the atmosphere has to be richer in O2 content. As a corollary, it stands to reason that air pollution has an adverse effect on larger insects.
#14 Kim, God bless global warming and air pollution then.
I like Robert’s camera better…
Spelling, please: Kwanack ==> Gwanak-san
That 1st pic is great. A very Idyllic looking mountain shot. Well done!
#15: I can almost see “Starship Troopers” happening…or even the classic “Alligator”…
As per #16, I like Robert’s camera too. I am using an old Olympus D-100 that sometimes shoots like an oatmeal box pinhole camera and eats batteries. Maybe it is a technological antique now (?).
Some insects are hermaphrodites and can self-reproduce therefore do not need to make a racket to attract other insects. Cicadas are annoying though; wonder why there is no maemi tang in Korea…
Cicadas, quiet… already? Again, I question an OP’s geography- where you at, Elgin? Here in Bucheon, they’re quiet most of the day but still a ruckus in the early evening… Maybe due to the warm weather here lately…
I was out at the Apkujongdong station where they can get so loud they hurt one’s ears, however, they were all silent a couple of days back. I guess they have populations at different stages, in different areas and, from the links I posted, it seems there are more than one variety here in Korea.
“Cicada season is over (except for this female I found yesterday) and it is quiet . . .”
Que, plenty of noise from them in Yeouido this lunchtime!!!
Not to mention plenty of noise in my neighbourhood - Gwanak-san
Since cicadas need bear ground to emerge and metamorphose, cities totally covered with concrete and asphalt aren’t suitable for them…
No bears in Korea, except at the zoo, but still plenty of memis.
There are bears in parts of Korea.
I just found a sign for Bongcheon 11-dong at the entrance of Kwanack Market so I guess that must be where it is.
Hi Elgin,
I meant South Korea where I understood they died out in the early 1980’s.
Have they made a recovery, if so be interested to know where?
Try Jiri-san:
http://www.eng.me.go.kr/docs/n.....amp;page=1
There are pictures of bears inside the DMZ as well. I remember seeing something about this on TV a few years ago too.
Naturally, some fools would probably try to kill them because they could sell such as part of a cure for cigarette-induced impotence.
Go figure.
That is true for the US and probably elsewhere. There are 13-year and 17-year cicadas, and within each group, there are distinct populations that emerge at different times. Maps of cicada populations look gerrymandered with twisting and sometimes overlapping boundaries.
My wife and I took inspiration from this photo and hiked up there last Friday. It was great.
I recommend Naksongdae, exit 2. go straight for a short bit and then turn right. Then you just go straight up the hill. Get to a T, and go left, and up Right again and you ‘ll see 2 small, old cement or stone stairways right next to each other. Go up and cross a little garden and you’re on the trail.
Yeah, that spot is actually to the left of this trail in the picture. Going up to the first spring and rest stop on Kwanack-san, just as you turn right into the rest area and spring, there is a trail going straight down (on the left). Take that trail and that is the one in the picture.
Great picture of that cicada. Those things drove me crazy when I lived there. It felt like living in the soundtrack to The Dark Knight (tension building)!