Cicada season in New Zealand begins in November and lasts throughout their Summer months.
The species Maoricicada hamiltoni (Myers, 1926) aka Hamilton’s Cicada, in particular, emerges in November. M. hamiltoni is known for its abundant hair-like setulae (see an image on this page).
Here is a list of the best New Zealand cicada links:
- New Zealand Cicadas (Hemiptera: Cicadidae): A virtual identification guide (landcareresearch.co.nz) A wonderful web site. Includes a visual identification guide, checklist, and image gallery. Photos of dozens of species.
- Cicada Central: New Zealand (uconn.edu) Cicada Central’s New Zealand cicada pages.
- Suzy’s World Cicada page (suzy.co.nz) Fun, kid-friendly presentation of cicada information.
- An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand (teara.govt.nz) Three paragraphs of information.
- Introducing cicadas (teara.govt.nz) Photos, sounds and 4 paragraphs of information.
- New Zealand cicadas (troutbum.co.nz)
Large photos of Kikihia and Amphipsalta.
Here is a nice article about the cicada Sounds of a Kiwi summer:
We have around 40 species of cicada in New Zealand, and probably the most familiar to us is the clapping cicada, which is actually two very closely related species that form the basis of our summer soundtrack in much of the country.
Some cicada New Zealand photos:
- Awesome Cicada photos from New Zealand: Steve Reekie is a great
nature photographer. Take a look at some of his cicada photos: Gone But Not Forgotten, Chorus Cicada, Cicada Nymph, and Little Grass Cicada - A Flickr gallery of New Zealand Cicadas
New Zealand has an especially long cicada season. Some of the Kikihia species, especially the grass ones, can begin in the north in September (early spring), and the northern shrub Kikihia like K. cutora don’t run completely out of gas until July. In warmer, north-facing grassy spots, the odd Kikihia muta male can be heard in any month of the year when a patch of milder weather comes through to bring them out. The Amphipsalta (the noisiest ones), Maoricicada (mountain species), Notopsalta, and Rhodopsalta species tend to have more focused seasons of adult activity.