Cicada Mania

Dedicated to cicadas, the most amazing insects in the world.

October 27, 2021

Cicadas of southern Africa: An illustrated guide to known species by R.D. Stephen

Filed under: Africa (Continent) | Botswana | Lesotho | Namibia | South Africa | Zimbabwe — Dan @ 4:50 pm

It isn’t often we get a single cicada publication as complete and awesome as Cicadas of southern Africa: An illustrated guide to known species by R.D. Stephen. The document is 224 pages long and includes color photos of dozens of cicadas with maps & text descriptions.

R.D. Stephen's Cicadas of southern Africa

Thanks to beetledude in iNaturalist and David Emery for letting me know.

October 8, 2018

Munza laticlavia

There are three subspecies of Munza laticlavia: M. laticlavia laticlavia (Stål, 1858), M. laticlavia lubberti Schumacher, 1913 and M. laticlavia semitransparens Schumacher, 1913. It is found in southern Africa, including the countries South Africa & Nambia. Perhaps Kenya too.

Scientific classification:
Family: Cicadidae
Subfamily: Cicadinae
Tribe: Platypleurini
Genus: Munza
Species: Munza laticlavia
Subspecies: M. laticlavia laticlavia (Stål, 1858)
Subspecies: M. laticlavia lubberti Schumacher, 1913
Subspecies: M. laticlavia semitransparens Schumacher, 1913

Not sure which subspecies appears in this photo:
Munza laticlavia

Munza genus description by W. L. Distant:

Characters. — Head (including eyes) a little wider than base of mesonotum, subtruncate and deflected in front of eyes; pronotum transverse, about as long as mesonotum, its posterior margin a little more than half the length of its vertex, its lateral margins dilated and a little angulated, but not reaching the basal cell of tegmina; anterior femora not spined ; posterior tibiae longly spined on their apical halves; metasternum a little elevated and centrally sulcate; tympanal coverings somewhat small ; opercula short, broad, their lateral and posterior margins a little oblique and sinuate ; rostrum reaching the posterior coxae ; tegmina with the basal cell broadened apically ; wings with the outer and posterior membrane Very broad, about one third their length.

References:

  1. The illustration and genus description comes from the journal Genera Insectorum, and a specific article from 1913 by W. L. Distant titled Homoptera. Fam. Cicadidae, Subfam, Cicadinae. Read it on the Biodiversity Heritage Library website.
  2. Species name information/verification comes from Allen Sanborn’s Catalogue of the Cicadoidea (Hemiptera: Auchenorrhyncha).

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