Plateglass Cicada Swarm

Field account

Every window in the strip mall was gone, yet the building kept reflecting us. The Plateglass Cicadas clung inside the frames, hundreds of broad wings holding our images in hard transparent facets. When one insect sang, the others angled those images toward it. The note struck like a bottle breaking inside the skull. Then the swarm lifted as one pane, shattered around the columns, and reassembled behind us. Individual cicadas were no larger than a thumb, wet-bodied and ugly beneath their wings, but together they built walls of glare that hid the actual cloud. We survived by knocking the metal sign letters into an uneven heap and beating them without rhythm. The wings could amplify a clean tone; they could not agree on our ugly noise. By dusk the storefront floor was carpeted in glass sheds, each still reflecting a place the swarm had occupied.

Observed behavior

The swarm arranges itself into apparent walls, false openings, and moving mirrors before beginning its song. It marks a target by holding that person's reflection across many wings, then focuses resonance through the shared image. Clean repeated sounds strengthen coordination. Irregular percussion, smoke, and matte dust disrupt both formation and reflection. When pressed, the swarm divides into several sheets that pass around obstacles and rejoin behind them. It avoids wet fabric, which traps wing edges without producing useful resonance. At night, adults settle in window frames and become sluggish unless exposed to bright artificial light.