March 13, 2019

Pomponia linearis (Walker, 1850)

Pomponia linearis is a cicada found in India.

Photo by Raghu Ananth taken in Bhagamandala, Coorg, India:

Pomponia linearis Cicada Found in Bhagamandala, Coorg, India by Raghu Ananth

Scientific classification:
Family: Cicadidae
Subfamily: Cicadinae
Tribe: Cicadini
SubTribe: Psithyristriina
Genus: Pomponia
Species: Pomponia linearis (Walker, 1850)

For more information about this cicada, visit Cicadas of India.

Yasumasa Saisho of the Cicadae in Japan website left a note on Facebook about this cicada:

Pomponia linearis is currently considered to contain several species (complex), for example, the population of Taiwan and Japan has been changed to Pomponia yayeyamana. See Duffels and Hayashi (2006) Tijd. Entomol., 149, 189-201.

I’m putting this at the end. It is a description of Pomponia fusca which back in the 1800s was a “synonym” of Pomponia linearis, from A Monograph of Oriental Cicadas by W. L. Distant. 1889-1892. Read it on the Biodiversity Heritage Library website:

Head, pronotum, and mesonotum are greenish-ochraceous. Head with the anterior margins of the front, an irregular central fascia to vertex enclosing the ocelli, a large spot on the inner side of eyes, and the anterior lateral angle of vertex, dark olivaceous. Pronotum with a broad central longitudinal fascia, two large oblique spots on each lateral area, and a spot on the lateral margin, brownish-olivaceous. Mesonotum with seven brownish-olivaceous spots; situate two central and obconical, between which is an arrow-shaped discal spot, a small spot on each side of the two central ones, and a long spot on each lateral area, two small spots of the same color in front of each anterior angle of the basal cruciform elevation. Abdomen pale castaneous with ochraceous pilosity. Head beneath, sternum, legs, and opercula pale greenish ; upper and apical areas of face, a spot between face and eyes, posterior margins of eyes, anterior tibiae, apices of intermediate tibiae, a spot near apices of femora, apices of anterior and intermediate tarsi, apex of rostrum, and a triangular spot between the intermediate and posterior coxae, dark fuscous. Abdomen beneath dark ochraceous.

Tegmina and wings pale hyaline ; tegmina with the costal membrane greenish, transverse veins at the bases of the second, third, fourth, fifth, seventh and eighth apical areas infuscated, and a marginal series of small fuscous spots situate at the apices of the longitudinal veins to apical areas; the venation is otherwise ochraceous, sometimes replaced by black; basal cell and claval margin brownish-ochraceous.

Wings with the venation brownish-ochraceous; claval margin darker in hue.

Long. excl. tegm.

Pomponia fusca note

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March 11, 2019

Platypleura capitata (Olivier, 1790)

Platypleura capitata is a cicada found in Sri Lanka and India.

Photos by Raghu Ananth, taken near Mysore, India:
Platypleura capitata by Raghu Ananth, taken near Mysore, India:

Platypleura capitata by Raghu Ananth, taken near Mysore, India:

Scientific classification:
Family: Cicadidae
Subfamily: Cicadinae
Tribe: Platypleurini
Genus: Platypleura
Species: Platypleura capitata (Olivier, 1790)

For more information about this cicada, visit Cicadas of India.

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March 10, 2019

Macrosemia umbrata (Distant, 1888)

Macrosemia umbrata is a cicada found in China, Burma, India, Nepal, Thailand, and likely adjacent nations.

Photo by Raghu Ananth taken in Arunachal Pradesh, India.

Macrosemia umbrata Cicada Found in Arunachal Pradesh, India by Raghu Ananth

This cicada is also known as Macrosemia chantrainei². Here is a photo by Michel Chantraine:
Macrosemia chantrainei Boulard, 2003

Same insect?

Description (from when the cicada was known as Cosmopsaltria umbrata):

Male. Head and thorax above obscure olivaceous. Head with the lateral margins to the front, the area of the ocelli, and some irregular spots on each lateral area of the vertex black; eyes ochraceous. Pronotum with two u-regular central black fasciae, ampliated at base and apex, and with two at each lateral margin, the posterior margin with its edge narrowly black and a black spot near lateral angles. Mesonotum with two central blackish obconical spots, between which a narrow l)lack fascia extends to the base, and a black spot in front of each anterior angle of the basal cruciform elevation. Abdomen above largely suffused with dull black shadings. Body beneath olivaceous; a central fascia to face, the anterior margin between face and eyes, inner margins and apices of femora, and the tibia more or less blackish. Opercula olivaceous, their apices and a spot near base blackish. Abdomen beneath olivaceous, largely suffused with black shadings.

Tegmina and wings pale hyaline, the venation fuscous; tegmina with the base and costal membrane fuscous, the transverse veins at the bases of the second, third, fifth, and seventh apical areas and the apices of the longitudinal veins of apical areas infuscated.

The rostrum has the apex pitchy and just passing the posterior coxa; the opercula are somewhat narrowed, concavely sinuated on each side near the base, and narrowed towards apices, which are obtusely and reach the fourth abdominal segment.

Long. excl. tegm. 46 millim. Exp. tegm. 120 millim.

Scientific classification:
Family: Cicadidae
Subfamily: Cicadinae
Tribe: Dundubiini
SubTribe: Macrosemiina
Genus: Macrosemia
Species: Macrosemia umbrata (Distant, 1888)

For more information about this cicada, visit Cicadas of India.

References:

The description and location information comes from A Monograph of Oriental Cicadas by W. L. Distant. 1889-1892. Read it on the Biodiversity Heritage Library website.
Species name information comes from Allen Sanborn’s Catalogue of the Cicadoidea (Hemiptera: Auchenorrhyncha).

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February 24, 2019

Gaeana atkinsoni Distant, 1892

Gaeana atkinsoni is a cicada found in China, India, Thailand, and Vietnam, and likely adjacent nations.

Photos by Raghu Ananth.
Gaeana atkinsoni Distant, 1892 from Uttara Kannada district in India by Raghu Ananth

Gaeana atkinsoni Distant, 1892 from Uttara Kannada district in India by Raghu Ananth

Scientific classification:
Family: Cicadidae
Subfamily: Cicadinae
Tribe: Gaeanini
SubTribe: Gaeanina
Genus: Gaeana
Species: Gaeana atkinsoni Distant, 1892

For more information about this cicada, visit Cicadas of India.

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May 8, 2014

Gaeana atkinsoni from the Uttara Kannada district in India

Filed under: Gaeana | Gaeanini | India | Raghu Ananth — Dan @ 1:46 am

Here’s a cicada I never thought I would see, but thanks to Raghu Ananth, here are two photos of a ~~Tosena sibyla~~ Gaeana atkinsoni.

Gaeana atkinsoni Distant, 1892 from Uttara Kannada district in India by Raghu Ananth

This photo was taken on May 2nd, 2009:

Gaeana atkinsoni Distant, 1892 from Uttara Kannada district in India by Raghu Ananth

Note the characteristic double stripes on the forewings. Note how the smaller stripe doesn’t make it all the way to the claval fold.

Here are observations about this cicada provided by Raghu Ananth:

Brief description –
The cicada has red eyes, red thorax with black patch above, red abdomen, black wings with yellow veins and a large yellow patch lines on the wings.

Numbers. found – several dozens.
Habitat – tree barks near forest path
length – 4-5 cms

The orange-red coloured cicada is one of the beautiful cicadas in the forests. It has a red body, red eyes and black wings with yellow patches. During one of our trips to the evergreen forests in the Uttara Kannada district (Karnataka), we spotted two of them camouflaged on the bark of each tree, actively walking up and down and then appearing a colourful red when in flight from one bark of the tree to another. Their singing, however, seemed not in sync with each another. On our approach, they would try to hide behind the bark or fly to a distant tree.

This illustration of a ~~T. sibylla~~ Gaeana atkinsoni comes from the document A monograph of oriental cicadidae (1892) by W. L. Distant.