These are the Dog Days

 

And this is a dog day cicada. It appeared on my porch this morning, right on schedule. I heard cicadas singing in the trees last night for the first time this year. Click to enlarge.

The so-called dog days extend from July 3 to August 11. During this time, the constellation Canis Major, the Big Dog, rises at about the same time as the sun. It gets blamed for the hot muggy weather of the hottest part of summer. There are several kinds of dog day cicadas across North America that emerge in late summer during the dog days and get their common name from it. 

This time of year you won't see any flashy red-eyed cicadas like this, though. It's one of several species of periodical cicada that are famous for explosivele emergences on 13 or 17 year schedules. They only come out is spring, and not annually. But... dog day cicadas are on the job every year.