Predation of Cicadas

After seeing so many cicadas appear over the last few weeks I was wondering if they had any predators since they only show up every 17 years or so. At first I did not see any evidence of anything attacking them but ants removing their dead bodies.

This week now that they have pretty much disappeared I have seen a small number of instances of them being eaten by other creatures.

Here is the only picture I caught of it happening in the act. A black jumping spider has captured one. I assumed it was alive when it was caught since it eyes are still red. The cicadas eyes turn dark once they are dead.



From a distance, I saw a red cardinal bird pecking at cicada. Later when I got my camera and investigated I found it was not completely dead but most of its abdomen was gone.


Here is an example of ants removing the pieces of cicada. Every so often I would see that the ants were taking apart a live cicada but only rarely.


The oddest encounter was a chipmunk that ran up to the porch and then picked up a dead cicada and started to eat parts of it or at least take it apart. I guess chipmunks can be carnivores.


Here is another cicada that the same cardinal mentioned earlier decided to eat part of.


Last, this cicada became victim to the air conditioner compressor.