Cicada Mania

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

August 4, 2010

Cicada Alphabet: D

Filed under: Cicada Alphabet — Dan @ 6:39 am

D is for Dog-Day Cicada. The Tibicen canicularis, aka Dog-Day Cicada, is thought to be known as the Dog-Day Cicada because they are most active during the “dog days of summer”, which are the days when the star Sirius is visible in the Northern Hemishphere (July 3-August 11)1. Canicularis is derived from the Latin word canis, which means dog. Tibicen davisi is known as the Southern Dog-Day Cicada. Folks use the term “Dog-Day Cicada” for other species of Tibicen as well, but the T. canicularis the true Dog-Day Cicada.

Image of a N. canicularis (on the left) and N. davisi by Paul Krombholz:
Neotibicen davisi & canicularis by Paul Krombholz

Diceroprocta is a genus of cicadas that exist in North America.

Diemeniana euronotiana is a pretty black, orange and red cicada that exists in south-eastern coastal area of Australia2. See a photo of a Diemeniana euronotiana.

The Double Drummer aka Thopha saccata is an Australian cicada. It exists on the east coast of Australia and prefers eucalyptus trees2. The Double Drummer is a large cicada, as you can see from this photo.

Dundubia is a genus of cicada that exists in Asia. See a photo of a disected Dundbia on Cicada Mania.

  1. Dog Days http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/dog%20days
  2. Australian Cicadas by M.S. Moulds.

3 Comments »

  1. Casbah says:

    I don’t know if any of these cicada’s are found in Nashville, but we’ve had a good-sized emergence of black, green, and white colored in my neighborhood. Much more than I can recall in previous years. They call in the early morning and late afternoon.

  2. Dan says:

    Spelling fixed. I spelled it with mania in the middle — go figure.

  3. Dave says:

    One thing to keep in mind – in the photo of canicularis/davisi, the canicularis is a male and the davisi a female, so one has to keep in mind that the shape differences are largely due to the sex. Some specimens of the two can be tough to distinguish.

    (And I just noticed that Diemeniana is spelled incorrectly. Someday we’ll

    Thanks for the post, Dan.

Leave a comment. Questions about plants or snakes are deleted.

Leave a Reply to Dave Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Cicada T-shirts