Categories
Australia Ferdinand Karsch Lembeja Parnisini

Lembeja paradoxa (Karsch, 1890)

Lembeja paradoxa is a cicada found in Australia. It is also known as the Bagpipe Cicada, because it looks like the musical instrument called bagpipes.

Photo by Timothy Emery from Thursday Island, Torres Strait off Cape York, Queensland:
Lembeja paradoxa (Karsch, 1890)

Scientific classification:
Family: Cicadidae
Subfamily: Cicadettinae
Tribe: Prasiini
SubTribe: Prasiina
Genus: Lembeja
Species: Lembeja paradoxa (Karsch, 1890)

For more information about this cicada, visit A web guide to the cicadas of Australia by L. W. Popple.

Categories
Ferdinand Karsch Genera Insectorum Koma Platypleurini Tanzania W. L. Distant Zimbabwe

Koma bombifrons (Karsch, 1890)

Koma bombifrons (Karsch, 1890). Found in eastern Africa, specifically Kenya, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe.

Scientific classification:
Family: Cicadidae
Subfamily: Cicadinae
Tribe: Platypleurini
Genus: Koma
Species: Koma bombifrons (Karsch, 1890)

Koma bombifrons (Karsch, 1890)

Koma genus description by W. L. Distant:

Characters. — Head (including eyes) wider than base of mesonotum, not truncate anteriorly. but frontally produced, about as long as pronotum (excluding its posterior margin); pronotum slightly shorter than mesonotum, its posterior margin about half the length of vertex, the lateral margins- moderately dilated, slightly angulated, but not reaching basal cell of tegmina ; anterior femora with one or more distinct spines on under surface; posterior tibiae with a few slender spines on apical areas; metasternum elevated and centrally sulcate; tympana large; opercula short, broad, in type the margins oblique; rostrum reaching the posterior coxae ; tegmina with the basal cell short and broad; ulnar veins well separated at their bases.

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. Current species name verified using Allen Sanborn’s Catalogue of the Cicadoidea (Hemiptera: Auchenorrhyncha).
Categories
Cameroon CAR DRC Ferdinand Karsch Genera Insectorum Muansa Nigeria Platypleurini Zaire

Muansa clypealis (Karsch, 1890)

Muansa clypealis (Karsch, 1890) is a visually amazing cicada, with a remarkable angular pronotal collar and almost butterfly-like wing inclusions. It is found in Sub-Saharan Africa/West Africa, including the countries Cameroon, The Central African Republic, The Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nigeria, and Zaire.

Scientific classification:
Family: Cicadidae
Subfamily: Cicadinae
Tribe: Platypleurini
Genus: Muansa
Species: Muansa clypealis (Karsch, 1890)

Muansa clypealis (Karsch, 1890)

A Muansa Distant genus description by W. L. Distant:

Characters. — Head (including eyes) slightly wider than base of mesonotum, not truncate anteriorly, but frontally produced, about as long as pronotum (excluding its posterior margin); pronotum transverse, its posterior margin little more than half the length of vertex, the lateral margins strongly and angularly produced, angular apices reaching to about middle of basal cell of tegmina; mesonotum a little longer than pronotum; anterior femora with one or more distinct spines, posterior tibiae with a few slender spines on apical areas; metasternum elevated and centrally sulcated ; tympana practically covered; opercula short, broad, their apices more or less convexly rounded; rostrum reaching the posterior coxae; tegmina with the basal cell broad, ulnar veins well separated at their bases

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).