Australia has the best cicada names:
- Cyclochila australasiae
- Green Grocer [picture]
- Yellow Monday [picture]
- Chocolate Soldier [picture (at bottom of page)]
- Blue Moon [incredibile picture at bottom of page]
- Masked Devil [picture]
- Macrotristria angularis
- Cherrynose or Whiskey Drinker [picture close to bottom of page]
- Pauropsalta extrema
- Typewriter [picture]
- Lembeja paradoxa
- Bagpipe Cicada [picture]
- Aleeta curvicosta
- Floury Baker [picture]
- Anapsaltoda pulchra
- Golden Emperor [picture]
- Arenopsaltria fullo
- Sandgrinder [picture]
- Macrotristria godingi
- Tiger Prince [picture]
- Thopha saccata
- Double Drummer [picture]
- Psaltoda plaga
- Black Prince [picture close to center of page]
- Tamasa tristigma
- Brown Bunyip [Brown Bunyip]
There’s plenty more on the Australian fauna or the incredible CSIRO Common Names site.
Laura Imbruglia sings songs that mention Green Grocers and Yellow Mondays on her album “It Makes a Crunchy Noise”.
That ‘chocolate soldier’ one is actually a ‘red rocket’ but i think the names for the other ones are very clever. My fav one is the blue moon how beautiful.
Comment by Ben — December 9, 2006 @ 3:35 pm
haha – very cool in a nerdy way :)
Comment by a adam — October 20, 2008 @ 2:39 am
Excellent page. Reminder of the glorious days of summer when I was a youngster.
You didn’t mention that the local pharmacist bought black princes wings and made some
special concoction from them.
Why were they known as “locusts” 50 years ago?
Comment by Brian Flaherty — May 13, 2010 @ 5:15 pm
I think they called them locusts because they reminded people of the locusts that are actually grasshoppers.
Comment by Dan — May 13, 2010 @ 5:43 pm