The Kansan Brood
Brood IV, the “Kansan Brood,” emerges at the western edge of the general periodical cicada range, in Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, and Nebraska. Magicicada septendecim, M. cassini, and M. septendecula are all found in Brood IV, though abundance of all but M. cassini declines in the western part of the range. Many of the M. cassini individuals sampled from Brood IV have some degree of orange striping on the underside of the abdomen, which is not typical of most populations of this species. However, calling songs and other characteristics are typical of other populations of this species, and they should not be confused with M. septendecula, whose abdominal stripes are sharper and more clearly defined.
In the map below, cicada symbols are verified presence records and red crosses are verified absence records in our database as of January 2024. Click on points for details. Gold symbols are from Simon (1988); smaller symbols are records with a lower degree of certainty and black crosses represent records that are considered spurious. Blue symbols are from Marlatt (1923); smaller symbols are records with a lower degree of certainty and question marks represent records that are considered spurious. Symbols are in layered in the order Database, Simon, Marlatt, and symbols in the upper layers may obscure symbols in lower layers. Some absence records in the database are not shown for clarity. Note that the dates shown do not represent dates of adult emergence; rather, they represent dates on which choruses were active. Thus, in any given area, adult emergence may have occurred a week or more earlier than the dates shown on this map. This map may not be reproduced without written permission.
Bauernfeind (Bauernfeind 2000) produced a county-level map of the 1998 emergence of Brood IV in Kansas and compared the distribution of 1998 reports and collections with specimens in the Kansas State University’s Museum of Entomological and Prairie Arthropod Research (MEPAR) and The University of Kansas Snow Museum (SM). Although reports of periodical cicadas in 1998 came from as far west as Stafford County KS, the westernmost counties in which specimens were collected were Ottawa, Saline, Sedgwick, and Summer Counties, KS. Bauernfeind also noted that there were no credible or verifiable reports of M. septendecula in the 1998 emergence of Brood IV in Kansas.
In the map below, yellow counties in Kansas have verified records and specimens, light green counties have records but no specimens, from Bauernfeind (2000). Cicada symbols are verified records in our database as of February 2021. Gold symbols are from Simon (1988). This map may not be reproduced without written permission.