I re-scanned some old (10+ years old) photos from Osamu Hikino.
Graptopsaltria nigrofuscata:
Platypleura kaempferi (Fabricius, 1794):
Amazing camouflage!
A male Tanna japonensis:
A male Auritibicen japonicus:
A male Auritibicen japonicus:
Genera of cicadas.
January 11, 2011
December 31, 2010
Cicada Mania: Y
Y is for Yellow Monday Cicada. The Yellow Monday cicada is the yellow form of the Cyclochila australasiae (the green form is the Green Grocer). Yellow Monday Cicadas lack a turquoise pigment that normally combines with the yellow pigment to form a green color. Visit the Scribbly Gum website for a photo and more information about Yellow Mondays.
A Yellow Monday photo by Tom Katzoulopolopoulous:
Cicada Alphabet: Q
Q is for Quesada gigas. The Quesada gigas, aka Giant Cicada, is a giant cicada with giant range, spanning South, Central and North America, reaching as far north as Texas. Read more about the Quesada gigas.
Video of a Quesada gigas song:
December 10, 2010
Multi-color Cyclochila australasiae
Found on Flickr.
Red, orange, blue and green!
September 16, 2010
Bladder Cicadas out in Sydney
Thanks to David Emery for letting us know that the Bladder cicadas (Cystosoma saundersii) are out in Sydney Australia, and for providing this photo.
Badder cicadas are emerging down the Aussie east coast starting around the Queensland -NSW border on Sept 3 (FlickR) and we heard them for the first time on Sept 10 in Sydney. A photo of one captured on Sept 12 is attached to refresh Cicadamania devotees.
August 29, 2010
Cicada Alphabet: H
H is for Hieroglyphic Cicada. The Neocicada hieroglyphica a.k.a. Hieroglyphic Cicada is found in the south-eastern United States. It’s active in the late spring and early summer. There are multiple subspecies of the Hieroglyphic Cicada including the Neocicada hieroglyphica hieroglyphica and Neocicada hieroglyphica johannis, according to InsectSingers.com.
Photo by Matt Berger.
Listen to a Hieroglyphic Cicada:
Neocicada hieroglyphica singing by Joe Green from Cicada Mania on Vimeo.
- Haemolymph is a blood-like fluid found in some arthropods like cicadas. Cicadas use haemolymph to inflate their wings when they eclose (leave their nymph form and become adults), as well as to transport nutrients throughout the cicada’s body.
- Harvest Fly is common name for Tibicen cicadas, presumably in areas where harvests take place. I’ve heard tales that the harvest is supposed to take place a month after the last Tibicen sings.
- Kathy Hill is a cicada researcher who is “working on descriptions of new species of cicadas from New Zealand, Australia and North America, several discovered through recognition of their unique songs” (quoted from Kathy and David Marshall’s wonderful InsectSingers.com website). Kathy is responsible for this unbelievable photo of 18 different USA Tibicen specimens.
- Huechys sanguinea is a beautiful black and red cicada from Asia. Here’s a photo of a Huechys sanguinea:
(Photo by Huechys sanguinea by =spurdog=, on Flickr).
August 22, 2010
Cicada Alphabet: G
G is for Greengrocer. The Greengrocer is the green morph of the Australian cicada Cyclochila australasiae. These cicadas can be found in south-eastern Australia. They have a large pronotal collar, and if you use your imagination, it looks like they’re wearing a tiny Pith helmet above their eyes.
Here’s a close of up of a Greengrocer (from Bron):
Here’s a box of Greengrocers (from Kevin Lee):
- Gaeana is a genus of cicadae found in Asia, like the black, gray, yellow and green Gaeana cheni
- Matija Gogala is a cicada researcher located in Ljubljana Slovenia. His Songs of Cicadas and Phantastic songs of the S.E. Asian cicadas! websites have been online since the 1990s.
August 1, 2010
What’s in a name?
We’ve discussed, in previous posts, issues with the naming of Tibicen cicadas; first there were gender agreement issues and then the naming of Tibicen tibicen cicadas (which most people still refer to as Tibicen chloromera).
The gender issue deals with agreement of the Genus and species name. Tibicen superba, for instance, should be called Tibicen superbus since the “en” in Tibicen is male, and the ending of suberbus needs to match that with “us”.
Quoting from Bug Guide1:
“All the —a endings in the species of Tibicen need to be —us, e.g. bifida should be bifidus”, per Allen Sanborn (Barry University, Florida), pers. comm., 2008. (Note, many taxonomists working on larger groups, e.g. leps, have abandoned gender agreement, but apparently this isn’t the case with Cicadas. MQ)
The story for Tibicen chloromera is a bit different. First, chloromera needed to be changed to chloromerus because of the gender agreement issue. Then that had to be changed to Tibicen tibicen because historically this particular cicada was referred to as Tibicen tibicen before Tibicen chloromera. This could be changed, if someone found a precedent of the insect being called a Tibicen chloromera, but then still we’d have to call it a Tibicen chloromerus because of the gender agreement issue.
Quoting from Bug Guide again2:
The long-standing name for this common species, Tibicen chlormera, has apparently been changed to Tibicen tibicen based on priority. See Synonyms and references. –Cotinis 17 October 2008.
That being said, most folks on the web call the Tibicen tibicen “Tibicen chloromera” to this day. Whether this is an act of rebellion, force of habit, loyalty to other researchers who don’t agree with the name change, I’m not sure.
Taxonomic name changes discussed, lets move to common Tibicen names.
Our last post featured Elias Bonaros photo of a Tibicen auletes, which I labeled a Scissor-grinder, a common name for the insect — or so I thought. Elias was quick to point out that other resources call another cicada, the Tibicen pruinosus, a Scissor-grinder. Elias is no slouch when it comes to cicada information, and he has correctly corrected me in the past in mistakes I’ve made, but I needed to figure out where i got my possibly erroneous information from.
Bug Guide calles the T. auletes a Scissor-grinder3 as well as Northern Dusk-singing cicada, as does another IOWA State website4.
University of Florida scientists/researchers, on the other hand, call the Tibicen pruinosus5 a Scissor-grinder as does the Song of Insects6 website. The University of Florida document doesn’t provide a common name for T. auletes, but the Song of Insects site refers to them as Northern Dusk-singing Cicadas.
So… any tie breakers out there? It could be that in the South the T. pruinosus is the Scissor-grinder and in the Mid-west it’s the T. auletes.
Here’s my list of references:
- Genus Tibicen http://bugguide.net/node/view/5949
- Species Tibicen tibicen http://bugguide.net/node/view/6966
- Species Tibicen auletes – Scissor-grinder http://bugguide.net/node/view/6968
- What is a Locust http://www.ipm.iastate.edu/ipm/hortnews/node/1936
- Cicadas (of Florida), Neocicada hieroglyphica (Say), Tibicen, Diceroprocta and Melampsalta spp. (Insecta: Hemiptera: Cicadidae) http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/in602
- Song of Insects http://www.musicofnature.com/songsofinsects/iframes/specieslist.html
July 28, 2010
Tibicen auletes aka Northern Dusk-singing Cicada
New Tibicen auletes photos from Elias Bonaros.
The Tibicen auletes aka Northern Dusk-singing Cicada is the largest of the Tibicen cicadas in the U.S.A.
July 8, 2010
Hot weather means cicadas emerge sooner? Most likely.
Temperature is a factor influencing when cicadas will emerge from the earth and enter the adult phase of their lives. Cicadas like warm weather (as do most insects) and so once the soil & air reaches a temperature that pleases the cicadas, they will likely emerge. There are other factors of course, but hotter weather usually means cicadas will emerge sooner than later.
The spring and summer of 2010 have been HOTTER than usual in the mid-Atlantic area of the United States, and so species of cicadas are emerging earlier than expected. Since June first, I’ve witnessed, 32 days above 80F(27C), and 11 days above 90F(32C), in New Jersey, which is warmer than usual.
Annual cicada species like the Tibicen species and Neocicada hieroglyphica have been emerging sooner than expected. Cicadas.info has reports of Neocicada hieroglyphica, Tibicen lyricen and T. tibicen (T. chloromera) emerging sooner than expected. I’ve been hearing T. linnei in New Jersey since June.
Massachusetts Cicadas is reporting a slow start for Tibicen. Massachusetts is a New England state and is typically cooler than Mid-Atlantic states like New Jersey, but that might not be the only factor at work here. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.
What else…
The temperature will also affect when a cicada will sing: if it’s too cold cicadas won’t sing, and if it’s too hot the poor over-heated cicadas won’t sing. This is why you won’t hear some annual cicadas singing on a cool day, or when it’s near 100F(38C). This depends on the species too; some species like it HOT, and some like it cool.
I’ve also heard that temperature can affect the frequency of a cicada’s song, however, there is not a formula that allows to you determine the temperature based on the pauses in a cicada’s call like there is for crickets.
