Neotibicen superbus photo by Sloan Childers from 2005. Round Rock, Texas.
February 29, 2020
March 17, 2019
Lyristes plebejus or Tibicen plebejus?
Lyristes plebejus is a cicada found in most of Europe and middle-eastern Asia. There is an ongoing debate over its genus. Some say Lyristes, and some say Tibicen. I don’t have an opinion on the matter, but most folks in Europe say Lyristes plebejus, so I’m leading with that name.
Photo of an adult Lyristes plebejus by Iván Jesus Torresano García:
Photo of a molting Lyristes plebejus by Iván Jesus Torresano García:
Scientific classification:
Family: Cicadidae
Subfamily: Cicadinae
Tribe: Cryptotympanini
SubTribe: Cryptotympanina
Genus: Lyristes or Tibicen
Species: Lyristes plebejus (Scopoli 1763) or Tibicen plebejus (Scopoli 1763)
According to iNaturalist this cicada is around between June and August. Peak in July.
View more photos of this cicada. Most photos by Iván Jesus Torresano García. There’s nearly 100.
For more information about this cicada, visit SONGS OF EUROPEAN SINGING CICADAS.
March 7, 2019
Auritibicen flammatus
There are five sub-species of Auritibicen flammatus. They are found in Japan and known as Aka-ezo-zemi.
Auritibicen flammatus adonis photo by Osamu Hikino.
Scientific classification:
Family: Cicadidae
Subfamily: Cicadinae
Tribe: Cryptotympanini
SubTribe: Cryptotympanina
Genus: Auritibicen (formerly Lyristes and Tibicen)
Subspecies:
- Auritibicen flammatus adonis Kato, 1933
- Auritibicen flammatus concolor Kato, 1934
- Auritibicen flammatus flammatus (Distant, 1892)
- Auritibicen flammatus nakamurai Kato, 1940
- Auritibicen flammatus viridiflavus Kato, 1939
For more information about Auritibicen flammatus, visit Cicadae in Japan.
Species name information comes from Allen Sanborn’s Catalogue of the Cicadoidea (Hemiptera: Auchenorrhyncha).
March 5, 2019
Salvazana mirabilis imperialis Distant, 1918
Salvazana mirabilis imperialis is a cicada found in Cambodia, China, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam.
Photo by Michel Chantraine:
Scientific classification:
Family: Cicadidae
Subfamily: Cicadinae
Tribe: Cryptotympanini
SubTribe: Cryptotympanina
Genus: Salvazana
Species: Salvazana mirabilis imperialis Distant, 1918
March 4, 2019
Salvazana mirabilis mirabilis Distant, 1913
Salvazana mirabilis mirabilis is a cicada found in Cambodia, China, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam.
Photo by Michel Chantraine:
Photo by Dan Mozgai:
Scientific classification:
Family: Cicadidae
Subfamily: Cicadinae
Tribe: Cryptotympanini
SubTribe: Cryptotympanina
Genus: Salvazana
Species: Salvazana mirabilis mirabilis Distant, 1913
February 28, 2019
Can you identify this cicada from Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia? (Cryptotympana aquila)
Can you identify this cicada from Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia? The photo was taken by photographer Karim Madoya.
Update: here’s what it is: Cryptotympana aquila.
Scientific classification:
Family: Cicadidae
Subfamily: Cicadinae
Tribe: Cryptotympanini
SubTribe: Cryptotympanina
Genus: Cryptotympana
Species: Cryptotympana aquila (Walker, 1850)
Psaltoda claripennis Ashton, 1921 aka Clanger
Can you identify this cicada from Brisbane Australia? These images were sent to us by Darren Fairbrother. Help us id this cicada.
Update! It is a Psaltoda claripennis Ashton, 1921 aka Clanger, from Australia.
For more information about this cicada, visit A web guide toThe cicadas of Australia by L. W. Popple.
Scientific classification:
Family: Cicadidae
Subfamily: Cicadinae
Tribe: Cryptotympanini
SubTribe: Cryptotympanina
Genera: Genera
Species: Psaltoda claripennis Ashton, 1921
February 19, 2019
Cryptotympana mandarina Distant, 1891
Cryptotympana mandarina is a cicada found in China, Laos, Vietnam, India, Thailand, and likely adjacent nations.
Photo by Michel Chantraine:
This description comes from A Monograph of Oriental Cicadas by W. L. Distant. 1889-1892. Read it on the Biodiversity Heritage Library website:
Male: Body above black; eyes fuscous; the anal segment of the abdomen with an ochraceous spot on each side. Body beneath and legs black; a spot at the anterior margin of the face, two marginal spots between face and eyes, lateral margins of face, femoral streaks, posterior tibiae (excluding bases and apices), margins of opercula, segmental margins (excluding disk), and apex of terminal segment, dark ochraceous.
Tegmina and wings hyaline, the venation fuscous; tegmina with the costal membrane castaneous, its extreme costal edge blackish, the post-costal area blackish; basal cell black; about the basal third of tegmina and the subcostal area to ax^es pale castaneous. Wings with about basal half irregularly very dark castaneous.
The opercula extend to about half the length of the abdomen, slightly overlap at the basal margin, somewhat concavely and obliquely sinuate at outer margins, and inwardly beyond base widely divergent to apices, which are narrowly and obtusely convex.
Long. excl. tegm. Male. 40 millim. Exp. tegm. 115 millim.
Scientific classification:
Family: Cicadidae
Subfamily: Cicadinae
Tribe: Cryptotympanini
SubTribe: Cryptotympanina
Genus: Cryptotympana
Species: Cryptotympana mandarina Distant, 1891
February 18, 2019
The Curious Case of Cultriformis in California
Megatibicen cultriformis (Davis, 1915), aka the Grand Western Flood Plain Cicada, is large cicada found in the states Arizona and New Mexico in the U.S. and in Mexico. According to the Biogeography of the Cicadas (Hemiptera: Cicadidae) of North America, North of Mexico by Allen F. Sanborn and Polly K. Phillips, it is found in the Mexican Highland Section of the Basin and Range Province of the Sonoran Desert, and is associated with cottonwood and willow trees1.
Over the weekend, cicada collector Richard Newfrock emailed me some cicada photos for identification. Amongst those photos was what appears to be Megatibicen cultriformis labeled Escondido, Cal[iforia]. I asked Richard about the location, and sure enough, he said they were found in a pool in Escondido. I double-checked the species and location with top-tier cicada experts Jeffery Cole and David Marshall. From our conversation, I believe they agreed that the cicadas appeared to be M. cultriformis and that Escondido is far from its normal range (about 400 miles away).
Female (left), Male (right). Found floating in a pool.
So, how did these cicadas Megatibicen cultriformis end up in Escondido? More than likely, if they are truly M. cultriformis, they hitchhiked on a tree transported from Arizona to California — or as David Marshall said to me in an email, “it’s at least possible that cultriformis could have been introduced on the roots of saplings transplanted from Arizona”.
Does anyone in the Escondido area want to listen for these cicadas in the summer and report back to us if you hear them?
Listen to its song:
Source: ©Insect Singers
Scientific classification:
Family: Cicadidae
Subfamily: Cicadinae
Tribe: Cryptotympanini
SubTribe: Cryptotympanina
Genera: Megatibicen
Species: Megatibicen cultriformis (Davis, 1915)
William T Davis’s description from A New Cicada from Arizona2:
Resembles Cicada marginata Say [now called Megatibicen pronotalis walkeri Metcalf, 1955] in size, color, and markings. Head black with an oblong greenish yellow spot each side between the eyes and a small spot of the same color on the front just above the transverse rugae. Pronotum greenish yellow with a large, conspicuous black spot occupying the fore part of its central area. The hind margin of the pronotum (collar) is entirely unicolorous as in marginata. The mesonotum is black, with a pruinose band each side at the base of the wings; the elevated x is greenish yellow, and there are two conspicuous, irregularly formed (pipe-shaped) greenish yellow spots occupying its central portion. The tergum is black, each side broadly margined with pruinose, and the segments have their posterior margins yellowish. There is also an indication of a dorsal line of pruinose spots on the tergum, which in the type have been nearly worn off. Beneath the head is blackish, the remainder of the insect being greenish yellow and more or less pruinose. The costal margin of the fore wing is entirely greenish yellow, darkened beyond the middle, and the w-mark is inconspicuous. Both fore and hind wings are greenish-yellow at base, with the veins darkened beyond the middle.
Note that greens often fade to tannish colors after a cicada dies.
Trivia: In Latin, “cultr” means knife, and “form” means shape — cultriformis means knife-shaped. Davis named cultriformis because “uncus locks, which are s millimeters long in cultriformis, and when seen in profile are shaped like the blade of a pruning knife, hence the name.” The uncus is the male genitalia.
Resources:
- Location and habitat info: Biogeography of the Cicadas (Hemiptera: Cicadidae) of North America, North of Mexico by Allen F. Sanborn and Polly K. Phillips. Diversity 2013, 5, 166-239.
- A New Cicada from Arizona. Davis, William T. 1915. Journal of the New York Entomological Society. Vol 23. Pages 239-241.Read it on biodiversitylibrary.org.
Cryptotympana aquila (Walker, 1850)
Cryptotympana aquila is a cicada found in Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, Thailand, and likely adjacent nations.
Photo by Michel Chantraine:
This description comes from A Monograph of Oriental Cicadas by W. L. Distant. 1889-1892. Read it on the Biodiversity Heritage Library website.
Male: Body above black; eyes ochraceous; ocelli luteous. Pronotum with some indistinct discal markings and the posterior margin pale castaneous. Mesonotum with a central triangular linear fascia, on each side of which is an irregular and inwardly notched fascia, and the basal cruciform elevation, pale castaneous. Abdomen black, the lateral margins fringed with pale castaneous pile. Body beneath very pale castaneous; the face, anterior margin of the head between face and eyes, and basal abdominal patch, black. Anterior legs black, the femera streaked with pale castaneous; intermediate legs with the femora black streaked with pale castaneous, the tibis pale castaneous with their bases and apices black; posterior legs pale castaneous, the bases and apices of femora and tibiae black.
Tegmina and wing pale hyaline; tegmina with the venation and the costal membrane pale castaneous, the extreme basal margin of the last black; the basal third (excluding venation) and the subcostal area to apex, blackish; wings with about basal half obliquely black.
The body is robust but moderately elongate; the opercula do not overlap at their basal margins, and at a short distance from base become widely divergent and narrowed to apices, their outer margins slightly concavely sinuate and in length, they extend a little beyond the middle of the abdomen.
Long. excl. tegm. Male, 40 to 45 millim. Exp. tegm. 115 to 120 millim.
Scientific classification:
Family: Cicadidae
Subfamily: Cicadinae
Tribe: Cryptotympanini
SubTribe: Cryptotympanina
Genus: Cryptotympana
Species: Cryptotympana aquila (Walker, 1850)
