Why cicadas only sing in summer

The continuous buzzing sound of the cicada is typical of Maltese summer days.

The cicada appears punctually during the second week of July. The larva digs its way out of the soil in it had lived for many years. It then climbs up the nearest vertical object which is usually the trunk of the tree of which it had been sucking juices. Occasionally instead of a tree it finds a wall or other stone structure.

Once it is high enough it expands slightly and this causes its external skeleton to break along a weak line at its back. It then pushes itself out of the exoskeleton and slowly walks away from it. This is a very vulnerable moment for the now adult insect. Its new external skeleton is still soft and in case of danger it is not able to fly.

The new external skeleton and the wings do not take long to harden and soon the male cicadas start singing while the females start their search for singing males.

When a pair of cicadas meets, they start courtship and then they mate. Courtship consists of repeated hugging and touching each other with their legs.

Soon after, the cicada lays its eggs in the soil close to the surface. The eggs hatch in late summer or early autumn in well enough time for the newly hatched larvae to dig their way further down into the soil where they will be spending the rest of their lives as larvae.

Once mating takes place and eggs are laid adult cicadas have no further need to stay alive and start dying. The number of singing cicadas has started to decrease and soon the last one will stop singing leaving behind a silence that indicates that the end of the summer season is fast approaching. 

This article was published in the Times of Malta on 28 August 2013.

The sounds of Malta's summer

Cicada (Cicada orni)

This year, summer started later than usual and it seems that it is ending earlier as well. It has already rained and the temperature is going down but summer is not just sunny days and high temperatures. Summer, like every other season has its characteristic sounds and smells which together differentiate it from every other season.

The sound I associate most with a Maltese summer is that of the cicada the large insect that looks like a fly that spends days on end making a loud buzzing noise. 

During the night, when the cicada stops singing, the cricket takes over. This nocturnal insect used to be very common but like many other insects, especially those that live in agricultural areas, it has decreased in number probably because of the use of pesticides. 

Country people used to catch crickets and take them home to hear them sing. They caught them by placing a wet cloth on the ground in a field in which tomatoes were being grown. In the morning they collected the crickets from beneath the cloth and placed them in special cages or in a tin can.

Those walk in parts of the countryside where the bear’s breaches grows can also hear the sound of its seed pods as they crack open in the heat. The sound which resembles that of a small pistol is followed by that of its large seeds of falling on the large dry leaves of this plant.

Spanish sparrows gather in large trees to roost every evening but in summer their numbers and the noise they make reaches a peak as the population is augmented by the recently fledged birds.

In early July the first autumn migrants appear in the Maltese islands. The first birds to arrive are the waders which leave their breeding grounds in the far north immediately as soon as their short breeding season is over. They have to move south as weather at such latitudes is very unpredictable and it can snow even in August.

For those with trained ears the shrill call of another migrant bird, the kingfisher, becomes another common summer sound. Kingfishers arrive in August. They often perch on a rock along the coast waiting for a right-sized fish to swim by. It flies low over the water often making a short sharp whistle, chee, repeated two or three times. 

The most common sound nowadays is that of the ubiquitous car which can be heard even from Comino where no cars are present and because of this we often miss the beautiful natural sounds which were once part of the Maltese environment.

This article was published in The Times on 15.09.2010

The fig tree

Country people used to say that the cicada appears when the fruit of the fig starts to ripen while others even claimed that the cicada actually ripens them. The adult cicada lives for a few summer weeks while the fig survives for many years and can grow into a large spreading tree that can produce large quantities of good tasting fruit every year.
The fig tree is an indigenous tree native to Southwest Asia and the Mediterranean. It has been cultivated in the Maltese islands for centuries and often grows wild in the most improbable of places. The large lobed leaves are easily recognised as they have been used for by artists to cover the genitals of nude figures. In the Book of Genesis Adam and Eve covered themselves with fig leaves after eating the forbidden fruit.
The fig tree, known in Maltese as siġra tat-tin was one of the first plants to be cultivated. Remains which were found in a Neolithic village in Jordan were dated to 9,400 to 9,200 BC. It was domesticated before wheat, barley and rye. Its fruit known in Maltese as tin is eaten raw, cooked, or dried. Once harvested the fruit does not keep well and should be eaten with the least possible delay unless it is to be preserved. Cato a Roman statesman urged the Romans to destroy Carthage and showed the Senate a handful of fresh figs from Carthage to show its proximity to Rome and hence the threat.
In the millennia that this species has been cultivated many varieties and cultivars have been developed. These vary in many ways including in the colour of the skin can be green purple or brown. When a branch, leave or fruit is broken off the tree releases a white sap which is an irritant to human skin. In the past the sap was sometimes used to reduce the pain and swelling of a bee or wasp sting.
Figs are one of the highest plant sources of calcium and fibre. Dried figs are rich in fibre, copper, manganese, magnesium, potassium, calcium, and vitamin K and have smaller amounts of many other nutrients. Figs are used as a laxative and contain many antioxidants. (This article was published in The Times 12.08.2010)