Cicada Mania

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

October 13, 2018

Arunta perulata (Guérin-Méneville, 1831)

Filed under: Arunta | Australia | Genera Insectorum | Guerin-Meneville | Thophini | W. L. Distant — Tags: — Dan @ 1:01 am

Arunta perulata (Guérin-Méneville, 1831). Found in Australia. Known as a White Drummer. Like other members of the tribe Thophini, like Thopha colorata (Orange Drummer) and Thopha saccata (Double Drummer), they have massive sac-like tymbal covers, which is why they’re called drummers.

Scientific classification:
Family: Cicadidae
Subfamily: Cicadinae
Tribe: Thophini
Genus: Arunta
Species: Arunta perulata (Guérin-Méneville, 1831)

White Drummer cicada (Arunta perulata)

Photo by David Emery.

Arunta perulata (Guérin-Méneville, 1831)

Arunta genus description by W. L. Distant:

Characters. — Head transverse, moderately truncate in front of eyes, between eyes much narrower than base of mesonotum ; rostrum reaching the posterior coxae; pronotum moderate broad, its breadth considerably less than length of both pro- and mesonotum (including the basal cruciform elevation); tympana very largely developed and sac-like, their apices obliquely extending beyond the lateral margins of the abdomen and to about half its length; opercula very small, not extending to base of metasternum, placed wide apart, and with their apical margins convex; anterior femora incrassated and spined ; posterior tibiae with a few lateral fine spines; tegmina and wings talc-like, tegmina with eight apical areas.

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).

November 29, 2007

Ozzie Cicadas: White Drummer cicada

Filed under: Arunta | Australia | David Emery — Tags: , — Dan @ 12:49 pm

Here is a White Drummer cicada (Arunta perulata) photo taken by David Emery.

White Drummer cicada (Arunta perulata)

The White Drummer cicada can be found in eastern Queensland and NSW, from November to April, but they are most common during December and January. (Moulds, M.S.. Australian Cicadas Kennsignton: New South Wales Press, 1990, p. 58)

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