by Carl Strang
Sunday was hot, sunny, and nearly calm, good conditions for seeking short grass prairie cicadas in DuPage County. The University of Illinois at Chicago research group had not sought them in my county, but I knew of two remnant prairies that were good possibilities. I started at the West Chicago Prairie Forest Preserve. The first short trail loop from the parking lot goes through a high quality prairie portion, and as it happened that was all I needed.
Here is one of 9 Okanagana I heard or saw at West Chicago Prairie.
Having established them in one location I went on to the Belmont Prairie, a state Nature Preserve managed by the Downers Grove Park District.
Belmont Prairie is much smaller than West Chicago Prairie, but its high quality core is at least as large as the Woodworth Prairie where there is a stable population of Okanagana.
Some clouds had come in, but the sun appeared frequently, and I heard a few cicada songs.
This one was singing from a gray dogwood adjacent to one of the trails.
That may be as much as I will be able to do with this species this year, as the end of its brief activity period is approaching.
Nature Inquiries 
Not an Indicator? | Nature Inquiries said,
July 11, 2014 at 5:50 am
[…] that I first met on July 4 of last year at Woodworth Prairie in Cook County. Soon after that I found them at West Chicago Prairie and Belmont Prairie in DuPage County. Researchers at Woodworth have documenting them as emerging during a relatively […]