Cicada Mania

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

January 19, 2009

Bagpipe Cicada

Filed under: Australia | David Emery | Lembeja — Tags: , — Dan @ 6:35 pm

This is a photo of the amazing Bagpipe cicada (Lembeja paradoxa) was taken by Timothy Emery (David Emery’s son).

Attached is a photo taken by my son, Timothy Emery from Thursday Island, Torres Strait off Cape York, Queensland. This a male “bagpipe cicada” (Lembeja paradoxa) singing for his female. These guys at rest look like dead leaves with wings folded under stems of grass, but when singing at dusk, rush up the stems and can expand their abdomens incredibly up to 5-10 x resting size (hence the bagpipe bit) and emit a very loud droning sound for their size. A great emergence of these on Thursday Island in the first 2 weeks of January.

Lembeja paradoxa (Karsch, 1890)

The Bagpipe cicada can be found in the Northern tip of Queensland, from October to February, but they’re most common during January. (Moulds, M.S.. Australian Cicadas Kennsignton: New South Wales Press, 1990, p. 178)

2 Comments »

  1. Good ‘on yer! Great stuff David (and Timothy(, love the photo images. Do contact me at gmail, the big ‘sei uno’ is around the door!

  2. bug_girl says:

    Is there a recording of this online anywhere? I am very curious about what this sounds like!

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