Culture technology of golden cicada

The golden cicada is the representative species of the cicadaceae, and the larvae are called differently in different places. Luo pot, crawling black grasshopper cicada, cicada tortoise and cicada monkey are all its names. The golden cicada is rich in nutrients and has high medicinal value. In particular, the skin of golden cicada is a kind of traditional Chinese medicine, and the idiom of golden cicada shelling also comes from it. Although the living territory of cicadas is becoming less and less, the number of golden cicadas in nature has not decreased significantly; now, in order to meet the market demand, some people have used artificial breeding methods to obtain it.

The living habits of the golden cicada

It is distributed in Henan, Hebei, Shandong, Anhui and other places in China. Cicadas generally complete a generation in 3-5 years, and there are also records of completing a generation in 5-6 years or 12-13 years. The egg population overwintered on the annual or biennial young twigs and each instar nymph concentrated on the plant roots in the soil, that is, there were two kinds of overwintering insects, eggs and nymphs of different sizes, and the overwintering sites were also divided into aboveground and underground environments.

The overwintering eggs began to hatch in mid-May of the following year, the peak period was from late May to early June, and the hatching activity ended in late June. Most eggs hatch in the afternoon during the day, accounting for about 80%, while less eggs hatch at night, about 20%. The egg period is close to 300 days. The activity of overwintering nymphs was most affected by the sap of the host plants. When the low temperature was higher than 10 ℃ ~ 15 ℃, the sap began to flow, and the overwintering nymphs began to prick and absorb food.

Nymphs hatched from overwintering eggs (called cicada ants) sneak into the soil and suck sap from the roots of the host plant. With the growth of age, build soil rooms of different sizes and shapes, and inhabit them. The appearance of the soil chamber is rough, the inner wall is smooth and moist, and part of the wall is attached to the plant root for feeding. When the temperature drops after autumn, it will drill into the deep soil to survive the winter, and then move up to the tree roots after the spring is warm. The number of nymphs in the soil is the largest in May, when a large number of overwintering eggs are hatched into the soil, and the last instar nymphs are about to molt into adults.

After completing the whole life process of the nymph in the soil, the mature nymph drilled out of the soil from late May to mid-late August, crawled to the branches of shrubs and weeds, fixed on the bark branches and leaves with the thorns of claws and forefeet, and molted and feathered into adults. The peak period of adult emergence is from the middle of June to the middle of July, and the last stage is in the first ten days of October. About 20 days after emergence, the adults copulated and laid eggs, and began to lay eggs in late June. The peak spawning period was from the end of June to late August, and the last spawning period was from early September to early October. The last time for adults to be seen is in early November. That is, the spawning period of adults can last from late June to early October.

Most of the adults emerged at 8-10:00 at night and at 4: 6 in the morning, and the ratio of female to male basically maintained 1 ∶ 1. Adults often inhabit the branches of tree trunks and have the habit of fighting fires at night. Adults lay eggs on branches with a diameter of 2mm to 7mm in 2012. the eggs are laid in the xylem of the shoot tips, and the egg nests are closely connected, mostly in a single row or in a double row, arranged in a straight line, and a few are curved or spirally arranged. There are 6 eggs in each nest and 12 eggs in one spawning branch, usually 20 eggs, with an average of 146 eggs. There are 60.146 egg holes in each branch. Each female carries more than 500-1000 eggs, with a maximum of 1500 eggs and a minimum of 20 eggs, with an average of 800 eggs. The life span of adults is about 3 months, and the occurrence period is usually from July to September every year. Adults have wings and can fly and make a living by sucking nutritious sap from young branches of trees by piercing mouthparts. After mating, the female cicada inserts the ovipositor into the xylem of the tender or biennial branches before laying eggs, and then lays the eggs in. At the same time, the tender branches are dehydrated and withered and die, causing harm to the trees.

Culture techniques of golden cicada

1. Select breeding trees

Dwarf fruit trees such as apricot, peach, apple or other surface wax dwarf shrubs are good trees for golden cicada breeding. Pay attention to pruning excessively high branches in time to facilitate breeding and management, interplant seedlings of fruit trees in the gaps between trees, in order to increase the branches of golden cicadas to lay eggs, and reproduce golden cicadas under trees to plant eggs. The method refers to "New Technology of Golden Cicada Culture"

2. Construction of breeding greenhouse

A breeding greenhouse should be built on the eve of the golden cicada being unearthed, with an area of 1 mu each. In the breeding area around the use of cement columns or bamboo rods to build a fence, the cement column row spacing of 5 meters, the middle with bamboo poles, and then fixed with iron wire, and then covered with nylon window screen. Breeding should choose plots with high dryness and convenient drainage and irrigation, and do not build breeding sheds in low-lying areas where water is easy to store.

3. Seed and pest management and epidemic prevention

After the golden cicada was unearthed, because its adult has a strong phototaxis, in the early stage, the feathered golden cicada entered the greenhouse after the emergence of adult worms, and when caught, the feathered golden cicada would fly around and bump around, resulting in the death of the species, so all the golden cicadas unearthed in the previous week could be captured, and the golden cicada could be naturally feathered and laid eggs a week later. The seed density is about 10000 per mu, and each female and male account for about 50% each. Each female golden cicada can lay 500 million eggs, and each greenhouse can provide about 20 mu of land for golden cicada breeding. The golden cicada can mate and lay eggs about 20 days after Eclosion. When laying eggs, the golden cicada punctures the epidermis of the branches and lays the eggs in the xylem. During the mating and laying period of the golden cicada, try not to walk and make noise in the greenhouse, so as to avoid adverse effects on the golden cicada.

Due to the unearthed nymphs (cicada turtles) and adult natural enemies, such as toads, sparrows and mantis, we should do a good job of protection in the greenhouse. In addition, we should always check whether the screen is damaged and strictly prevent the golden cicada from escaping. Beauveria bassiana, Beauveria bassiana and entomogenous algae (cicadas) and other microorganisms can cause parasitic harm to golden cicadas, so protection should be strengthened during culture. The main natural enemies of golden cicadas are ants and red flower bugs, which must be strictly guarded against during the emergence of mature nymphs, eggs under trees and the occurrence of cicadas. Strong ammonia can be used for soil treatment.

4. Harvest and preserve the eggs

In addition to the natural collection of cicada eggs, a screen greenhouse can be established to provide space for adults to lay eggs. You can use the fruit trees in the abandoned orchard to replant the fruit tree seedlings, set up a fence around with cement columns or bamboo sticks, and set up iron wire in the middle, which can be covered with nylon window screen. Eclosion or collection of adults in which they mate and lay eggs, the number of adults can be retained as needed in the future, and there is no need to collect provenances from the wild.

Early and late September is the best season for collecting golden cicada eggs in the breeding greenhouse. A fruit branch shears or a long rod with a hook at the top can be used to remove the 1-2-year-old thin dry and incomplete surface on the tree killed by eggs, and the subcutaneous xylem embedded with a large number of milky long oval eggs, that is, cicadas eggs, cut off the extra non-egg withered shoots in the upper part of the spawning nest, leave 5-10 cm egg-free branches in the lower part of the spawning nest mark, tie 50-inch 100 branches into a small bundle, put them in a plastic bag or flat code in the hatchery. After natural treatment, it can be used as a seed.