INTERVIEW BY ANDREW MORKES, FOUNDER AND AUTHOR OF “NATURE IN CHICAGOLAND” BLOG
Dr. Carl Strang is the author of Singing Insects of the Chicago Region: A Guide to Crickets, Katydids, Grasshoppers and Cicadas with Audible Displays and the author of the blog, “Nature Inquiries,” which he has written and updated since 2008. He has a Ph.D. in wildlife ecology. Singing Insects of the Chicago Region takes a comprehensive look at approximately 100 species of cicadas, grasshoppers, katydids, and crickets in a 22-county area that is defined in the 131-page book as extending from southeastern Wisconsin, throughout northeast Illinois and northwest Indiana, to Berrien County, Michigan. This is the book to read if you want to learn about singing insects in our area.
Dr. Strang talked with me about his book, blog, and the emergence of cicadas that we can expect this spring in Illinois and other states.
Q. Can you please tell me about your book, Singing Insects of the Chicago Region? What are a few of the major insect trends that you identified in the latest edition? How do people obtain a copy?
A. The book provides summary information of a 22-county survey of around 100 species of crickets, katydids, cicadas, and grasshoppers in which males produce sound displays audible to people that their females follow to find them. I update it annually (the cover photo that accompanies this article is from the 2022 edition; only the date is changed on the cover this year). I started the study in 2006, and have reached a stage of diminishing returns. This year I added only some scattered county records. The only major item was that in a few small places, large numbers of periodical cicadas emerged a year early. Otherwise, general trends have been the northward spread of several species, and the loss or diminishment of a few species that historically were in the region but cannot be found now. Next year will be marked by the main emergence of periodical cicadas in Northeast Illinois, after which I will begin expanding the study beyond the 22 counties. People who want to get on the mailing list for the guide should email me (wildlifer@aol.com) with their request.
Q. Can you tell me a little about your blog? What made you want to start it and what do you hope it provides to readers?
A. I started “Nature Inquiries” when I was part of a consortium providing a master’s degree in science education for teachers. My contribution was courses in Prehistoric Life and Field Ecology. The format was that all the courses were taught using inquiry techniques. The blog provided support for that, as well as information about local natural history and related topics. New posts are relatively few, now, and come from the research. The blog has a search function if people are looking for information about a topic.
Q. What made you want to pursue a career in wildlife ecology, and what prompted your special interest in insects (especially singing ones)?
A. I come from an outdoors-oriented family in a rural community, and developed diverse interests in natural history as a child. Wildlife ecology was a natural extension of that. I am more hearing-oriented than most people, and want to know what kinds of animals are producing the various sound displays. Birds were easy, but there was little available on insect songs. As I began to find resources on that, and realized that I would have to be self-taught because few people study it, my research followed.
Q. Cicada broods XIX and XIII will emerge in Illinois and in other states this spring. What can people in Northern Illinois expect to experience during this dual emergence? What is one thing that people may not know about cicadas?
A. In northern Illinois we will have only Brood XIII, which are two species of 17-year cicadas that emerge simultaneously. The two have different songs, easily distinguished, but the insects are visually very similar. They will begin to come out in the last half of May, and will peak in June, tailing off into early July. They won’t be everywhere. In DuPage County, for instance, in 2007 they were mainly in the eastern half of the county, few to none in the western half, for historical reasons. They come out in huge numbers where they are established, and their massed songs are very loud from late morning through the afternoon. They are eaten by a variety of birds and other animals, and when they die the nutrients from their bodies leach into the soil and feed the plants.
Q. What is one thing that people may not know about cicadas?
A. One recent discovery is that they “decide” a year in advance that they are going to emerge the following year. They seem to count years in groups of four, so that 17-year cicadas turn the switch after four groups of four years, 13-year cicadas after three groups, and there are tiny minorities that come out at age nine in the south (Brood XIX is central to southern Illinois), and age 21 in the north.
Carl Strang owns the copyright to his interview.
Copyright (photos, as credited on photo); main article photo, clockwise from top left: book cover (Carl Strang), cicada (Megan Seymour, USFWS), Boll’s grasshopper (K. Theule, USFWS), katydid (Courtney Celley, USFWS)
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ABOUT ANDREW MORKES
I have been a writer and editor for nearly 30 years. I’m the founder of College & Career Press (2002); the author and publisher of “The Morkes Report: College and Career Planning Trends” blog; and the author and publisher of Hot Health Care Careers: 30 Occupations With Fast Growth and Many New Job Openings; Nontraditional Careers for Women and Men: More Than 30 Great Jobs for Women and Men With Apprenticeships Through PhDs; They Teach That in College!?: A Resource Guide to More Than 100 Interesting College Majors, which was selected as one of the best books of the year by the library journal Voice of Youth Advocates; and other titles. They Teach That in College!? provides more information on environmental- and sustainability-related majors such as Ecotourism, Range Management, Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Built Environment, Sustainability Studies, and Sustainable Agriculture/Organic Farming. I’m also a member of the parent advisory board at my son’s school.
In addition to these publications, I’ve written more than 60 books about careers for other publishing and media companies including Infobase (such as the venerable Encyclopedia of Careers & Vocational Guidance, the Vault Career Guide to Accounting, and many volumes in the Careers in Focus, Discovering Careers, What Can I Do Now?!, and Career Skills Library series) and Mason Crest (including those in the Careers in the Building Trades and Cool Careers in Science series).
Here’s a list of the environmental-focused titles that I’ve written:
- Nature in Chicagoland: More Than 120 Fantastic Nature Destinations That You Must Visit
- Wind Turbine Technicians (Great Careers Without a Bachelor’s Degree series)
- Environmental Scientists (Cool Careers in Science series)
- Renewable Energy Careers (Cool Careers in Science series)
- Environment (Getting Started series)
- Solar Power Technicians (Careers in Infrastructure series)