Is Philly Being Snubbed Again?

As I examined the map and zoomed in closer to the Philadelphia region, it was obvious. There was a big empty place on the map that mostly outlined Philly. The map I was looking at was one showing where Brood X of the 17-year cicadas (also called periodical cicadas) had been recorded in previous years and likely would appear this year. 

The map, generated by John Cooley, PhD, is based on more than 45 years of field work by Chris Simon and Cooley and also specimen records in museum collections including those of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University where I work.  It was clear from the map that this emergence, with all its hype, would not include Philadelphia!”

Courtesy of cicadas.uconn.edu

I have worked with museum specimen data for the last four decades as a collection-based scientist studying the diversity of insects. Museum specimens offer a rich resource of knowledge: what a species looks like, where it is found and when, what constitutes its genetic makeup, and other species associated with it. Also, a specimen with its collection labels offers a history of human endeavor – the place it was found, the time, and the collector who secured the insect. But what does an absence of specimens mean? 

When I looked at the map again and that big bare area over Philadelphia, I had to think: what does it mean? Is it a real absence or just an artifact of incomplete sampling? Incomplete sampling seemed unlikely, as the American Entomological Society was established in 1859 in Philadelphia and continues today as the oldest entomological society in North America. There has been a strong presence of society members interested in insects and collecting specimens for over 160 years, all throughout the region. 

Ok, I thought, perhaps the periodical cicadas had occurred here but were extirpated (made locally extinct) by the development of the city with its buildings and streets and pollution and loss of woodlands, etc. Other insects did disappear from the city, like the Regal Fritillary butterfly. A lot can happen in 17 years when you are living underground, right? 

But the map also showed that Brood X was abundant in the Baltimore-Washington D.C. area. I remember driving in downtown Washington during the cicada emergence in 2004 and seeing periodical cicadas buzzing along the streets and across I-95 Philadelphia was also proactive in the 1800s protecting watersheds in the city to ensure clean water for its residents before a lot of that development had occurred, and that protection extended to the watershed forests – now our Fairmount Park system. So the forests are here to support the cicadas, even today. So cicadas should be here, if they ever were. 

In copula. Credit Greg Cowper/ANS

So maybe the hole in the map represents a true absence – the cicadas just aren’t in Philadelphia. Reasons unknown. But before I got too far down that path of thinking, my colleague at the Academy, Greg Cowper, sent me a photo of a pair of specimens in our collection, with the handwritten label “Phila. Pa. 6/16/02”! 

It was a male and a female on the same pin, usually indicating, in entomologist parlance, that it was a pair found in copula, or mating. And interpreting the label date, it appeared the specimens were taken on June 16, 1902, nearly 120 years ago. Since it was the only specimen we had from Philly, I had to think: how reliable was it in showing that these cicadas really were in Philadelphia? 

Occasionally specimens get mislabeled, but we don’t expect to see that when someone has handwritten the label on the specimen they collected. Could it be a specimen that hitched a ride on a cart into the city from someplace where we know periodical cicadas are found, such as Haverford? Sure, it happens, but the fact that this was a mating pair suggested to me that the person sampled a reproducing population, and not a stray from another area. 

With that, I felt I had good reason to accept the record and to wonder where in the diversity of locales that make up Philly did these specimens come from? Since the specimens came with limited information, I thought perhaps there were some historical accounts on the cicada emergences that might help. So I started down the rabbit hole many of us do when so much information on the internet is so readily available – and what a rabbit hole (or cicada burrow) it led me down!

Although periodical cicada emergences were well known to the indigenous peoples in eastern North America, according to accounts from early European settlers, we don’t have any reports in written documentation for the Philadelphia region until the 1700s. In searching, I found a wonderful account John Bartram wrote in 1749 (also a Brood X year) about a mass emergence of periodical cicadas beginning in May “in the neighbourhood of Philadelphia.” He noted that “now there is a continual noise all over our woods and orchards, from morning to evening.” 

Magicicada cassini specimen

A hundred years later, in an 1851 account, John Cassin, a well-known ornithologist at the Academy of Natural Sciences, described a mass emergence again in “this neighborhood especially in the woods at Powelton during the present year. I saw them in Delaware county Pennsylvania in 1834.” (also a Brood X year) Cassin noted that two species were present, one that was described by Linnaeus nearly a century before as Cicada septendecim, and a smaller species with a different song. 

That second species was described as new by one of Cassin’s colleagues and named for him, Cicada cassini. Cassin noted this second species was abundant in Powelton in an orchard of apple trees in the most elevated part of the estate and also in trees in the adjacent woods. Cassin goes on to note that the periodical cicadas were noted “in this neighborhood” in May 1715 in early Swedish settler accounts. 

I was perplexed by the “neighborhood of Philadelphia” remarks from both Bartram and Cassin.But then I realized that in Bartram’s time, his farm, sitting across the Schuylkill River was not part of Philadelphia proper; and even Powelton, which Cassin mentioned, was not part of the city of Philadelphia until 1854. 

So periodical cicadas did occur in Philadelphia at least up until 1902. They were noted at Bartram’s farm, now Bartram’s Garden, and in the Powelton area, both in west Philadelphia.  They apparently occurred in Delaware County, although we have no specific records. Are they still there? Are they in other areas of Philadelphia as well? This is the year to find out! 

We have great tools to help us – smartphones with camera, video and GPS capabilities. We have fantastic apps and websites to record our observations such as iNaturalist, Bugguide.net and CicadaSafari. We can take a sample of specimens for the Academy’s collection to document the species presence now and allow others in the distant future to study them.Most importantly, instead of a limited number of “specialists” doing the observations, the tools allow a multitude of people of diverse backgrounds across the city to contribute their observations. 

With the discovery of any still living populations of periodical cicadas within Philadelphia, we can take steps to preserve this wonderful natural phenomenon for future generations. But first we must see if they still do occur here. 

Right now in April, we can look for the nymphal cicada exit holes appearing in the forest floor as these young cicadas await the right soil temperature to make their exit and transform into adults. We can listen for the cicada chorusing in May and June and zone in to see if one, two or three cicada species are present. 

John Cassin gravestone in Laurel Hill Cemetery. Credit Dwkaminski

Some great places to start would be sites in West Philadelphia along the Schuylkill, such as Bartram’s Garden, The Woodlands, or even in Powelton Village. We need to check the city’s extensive Fairmount Park system, and maybe even Laurel Hill Cemetery where John Cassin is buried. Wouldn’t that be wonderful to hear a choir of Magicicada cassini singing their buzzing chorus over his headstone? Happy hunting!

Text and images by Jon Gelhaus, PhD, Curator of Entomology at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University and professor, Biodiversity, Earth and Environmental Sciences


To read more posts in the cicada series, visit

Brood X Cicadas, Pt 1

Brood X Cicadas, Pt 2

How to Celebrate 17-year Cicadas — Eat One!


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27 comments

  1. I remember seeing a big cicada emergence on the Penn campus in the 1980s, but am not sure of the year—might have been ’87. It’s certainly a good place to look. (Here in Fredericksburg VA we may be too far south for Brood X—we might be in Brood XIV territory—but I have the Cicada Safari app ready just in case.)

    1. Steve – thanks for the observation! It will be a place we should look. Hopefully there will be lots of us out documenting where they occur using Cicada Safari and/or iNaturalist apps.

  2. Any developments ? I hike a lot at fairmount park and at Wissahickon valley park and would love to know if those are locations will have a lot of cicadas. Thanks in advance

    1. Chris G:

      I havent seen any reports from Fairmount Park and Wissahickon Valley yet. You might want to load the apps CicadaSafari and INaturalist – and you can search via the maps for recent reports – both should show photos immediately upon the person loading them. Right now, the weather has cooled and the cicadas wont be emerging as adults until it warms up. Soil temperatures need to be 64F and they will lag the air temperature. Check in the woods.

  3. There are what looks like cicada bore holes all over a wooded field across from the Philadelphia Art Museum (26th and Pennsylvania).

    1. Andy Z – cool report – you might upload photos to cicadasafari and/or iNaturalist and see what the others think. Holes should be at least nickel-sized. You might look for the exoskeletons of the nymphs attached to tree trunks and shrubs.

  4. I am a fly fishing enthusiast and live in Havertown, PA. I have been fortunate enough to encounter and fish over “hatches” of Periodical Cicadas in Central PA in 2008 and 2013. I first learned of these insects in 2004 but did not understand how localized emergence can be, and so never got to see or fish to them. However, I later heard anecdotal reports that the emergence that year was so heavy in the Bryn Mawr/Ardmore area that people were crunching them under their feet on the sidewalks. For what it’s worth…..

  5. I live on Belmont ave near City Ave. For years we had cicadas,every year! Around the earlier 2000s there was a localized bumper crop. There were a LOT of cicadas and then year by year they tapered down to nothing. Last summer I heard a few early on,then nothing.

    1. Robert

      Those are likely the annual cicada species – which emerge every year starting in early July. Not sure why they would be missing now but perhaps lots of lawn insecticides are having some effect. The “bumper crop” year – if it was in May or June, would be of interest as those could have been periodical cicadas. In our region there are several species of annual c icadas (and they sing at different times of the day) generally distributed where there are trees, and then the periodical cicadas in only certain sites.

  6. I moved from Yeadon on the border of Southwest Philadelphia in 2012 and we always saw and heard the cicadas.

    1. Andrew

      Likely the annual cicada species that emerge each year. the periodical cicadas only emerge every 17 years en masse and in May and June. Around here that would be Brood X (2021, 2004, 1987, etc) or Brood 2 (in 2008, 1991, etc). But if you see/hear cicadas every year, then those are the annual cicadas.

  7. I guess nobody thought to sample Haverford, PA. They were out full force in 2004, more in some areas than others. And today I’ve been hearing them. In fact, I went outside and one landed on my neck, even with a hat! Yikes!

    1. I haven’t heard or seen any here off Ithan and Old Gulph. Where are you in Haverford (approximately)?

      1. Booth Lane and Montgomery Ave is one hot spot in Haverford. Haverford is a well known site close in but outside Philadelphia

  8. Can confirm the area of Haverford around Booth/Haverford Station Rd/Montgomery Ave/Berkley Rd is pretty well overwhelemed with Brood X, but then if you travel even a half mile away, there are none at all.

    1. A good place to experience Brood X, if you wish, is Sharpe Bird Sanctuary on the corner of Haverford Station Rd. and Montgomery Ave.

      1. That’s one of the places I checked out, tons of cicadas and tons of flagged branches nearby where they laid their eggs. Church of the Redeemer not too far from there also had boatloads, as it did back in 2004.

  9. We live in Paoli, just off of Darby Rd close to Lancaster Ave. We have a lot of woods and trees here. We’ve seen no cicadas whatsoever. I’m really surprised. I can’t hear them either so it not as if they’re across the street.

    We were in Northern VA in late May and they were prevalent and very loud. Like you’d have trouble talking across people at a low voice in the evenings due to their song. I grew up in Northern VA and remember a brood X year in high school in 1987. I do remember them being EVERYWHERE that year as well.

    In some ways I’m ok with less bugs this summer as I’m sure we’ll have plenty of spotted lantern flys, but thought it might be interesting to see again.

  10. I’ve been through the Philadelphia suburbs and while there weren’t any in the city proper, in the Main Line suburbs I noticed two major spots where there were TONS of Magicicadas! They aren’t common but they certainly are around if you look for them!

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