Today I received some more information with regards to Cicada Killers. Garry Sadler of Chatham sent me a photo he took in his yard in 2006 of one of these insects. He did not know what it was until now! I looked at it and was quite certain it was a Cicada Killer, but sent it to Don Sutherland just to be sure.
Garry believes he has seen them every summer, so next next summer I am sure he will take a good look.
photo by Garry T. Sadler (Chatham, 2006)
Don Sutherland mentioned today that some of the data in that paper he referred to is somewhat dated. Here is a portion of his email today:
I contacted the authors of the paper on cicada killers (Sphecius) in
the
Americas and they sent me the specimen label data. It has been
collected a
number of times at Point Pelee, beginning in 1985. Other
sites for Essex are
Kingsville, Harrow and Windsor. Elsewhere:
Lambton: Pinery; Chatham-Kent:
Chatham (1946) and Rondeau; Norfolk:
Turkey Point and Port Dover (1955);
Haldimand: Hagersville; Niagara:
Vineland (1956) and St. Davids (1932); and
Hamilton: RBG in Hamilton
(no date).
Point Pelee is one of the most reliable spots to find it in the summer. Alan Wormington sent some comments the other day which also helped in writing the blog recent post. One of the things Alan essentially noted is that it has become more and more common since he first noticed them at least ten years ago.
Keep an eye out for them!!
Hi, my name is Jen, I live in Dresen. I have had 2 in a container for about a month and a half now, still not sure what they were. They are quite large. The larger of the two was actually carrying a Cacadia(I now know what the large bug is too) when i trapped it. We actually caught 3, and have seen no sign of any more since. They were frequenting a hole they made in a highly trafficed area in my backyard where my young son plays daily. Thank you for the information you have posted, it was very helpful.
ReplyDelete