April 26, 2015

One new genus, and 15 new species of cicada in Argentina

Filed under: Allen F. Sanborn | Argentina | Maxine E. Heath — Dan @ 6:21 am

Allen F. Sanborn & Maxine S. Heath published a new paper about cicadas titled The cicadas of Argentina with new records, a new genus and fifteen new species (Hemiptera: Cicadoidea: Cicadidae) in Zootaxa Vol 3883, No 1, in November of 2014. Website for the document.

The abstract of the paper reveals some exciting discoveries:

108 species belonging to 37 genera, eight tribes, and three subfamilies of cicadas are represented in the Argentine cicada fauna.
The new genus is Torresia Sanborn & Heath gen. n.
New species:
1. Adusella signata Haupt, 1918 rev. stat.
2. Alarcta micromacula Sanborn & Heath sp. n.
3. Chonosia longiopercula Sanborn & Heath sp. n.
4. Chonosia septentrionala Sanborn & Heath sp. n.
5. Dorisiana noriegai Sanborn & Heath sp. n.
6. Fidicinoides ferruginosa Sanborn & Heath sp. n.
7. Guyalna platyrhina Sanborn & Heath sp. n.
8. Herrera humilastrata Sanborn & Heath sp. n.
9. Herrera umbraphila Sanborn & Heath sp. n.
10. Parnisa lineaviridia Sanborn & Heath sp. n.
11. Parnisa viridis Sanborn & Heath sp. n.
12. Prasinosoma medialinea Sanborn & Heath sp. n.
13. Proarna alalonga Sanborn & Heath sp. n.
14. Proarna parva Sanborn & Heath sp. n.
15. Torresia lariojaensis Sanborn & Heath sp. n.
16. Torresia sanjuanensis Sanborn & Heath sp. n.

The document is 94 pages long.

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April 22, 2015

Cicada Tribes

Filed under: Genera — Dan @ 7:26 pm

Here’s another cicada wordcloud. This time it’s cicada Tribes. The largest text represents the most common Tribe by number of species within that tribe.

Cicada Tribes: talaingini plautillini orapini sonatini taphurini huechysini fidicinini cicadatrini platypleurini carinetini cryptotympanini cicadettini toseninicicadini burbungini hyantiini dazini gaeanini dundubiini zammarini polyneurini chlorocystini prasiini parnisini tibicinini

For folks who are sight impaired, the two largest tribes are Cicadettini and Cicadini.

Source of names:

Sanborn, A. (2014) Catalogue of the Cicadoidea (Hemiptera: Auchenorrhyncha). Academic Press/ Elsevier, London.

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The most common cicada genera

Filed under: Genera — Dan @ 5:00 am

I took a list of all cicada species and used the program R to create this wordcloud of cicada genera. The larger the name, the more species there are belonging to that genera.

The largest genera is Cicada.

Source of names:

Sanborn, A. (2014) Catalogue of the Cicadoidea (Hemiptera: Auchenorrhyncha). Academic Press/ Elsevier, London.

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Four new cicada species in Australia

Filed under: Cicadettini | David Emery | L. W. Popple | Nathan Emery | Yoyetta — Dan @ 4:38 am

According to Nathan Emery on Twitter, four new species of cicadas belonging to the genus Yoyetta have been described:

Y. cumberlandi sp. nov.
Y. fluviatilis sp. nov.
Y. nigrimontana sp. nov.
Y. repetens sp. nov.

See this paper for more information:

Emery, N.J., Emery, D.L., & Popple, L.W. (2015) A redescription of Yoyetta landsboroughi (Distant) and Y. tristrigata (Goding and Froggatt) (Hemiptera: Cicadidae) and description of four new related species. Zootaxa 3948 (3): 301—341.

New #cicada paper out w/ @_DrPop_ on the re-description of 2 Australian Yoyetta spp. and 4 new Yoyetta spp. Preview: http://t.co/P7491ZqH4h

— Nathan Emery (@ecotechnica) April 22, 2015

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April 14, 2015

Cicada People

Filed under: Researchers — Dan @ 9:10 pm

Cicada People

A little fun before the periodical cicada season starts. This is a “wordcloud” of the last names of people who have identified species of cicadas. The bigger the name, the more cicada IDs are attributed to them.

The are a couple of errors (misspelled Stal, split up Van Duzee). If you’re interested in making your own wordcloud, you can use the program R with the R package wordcloud.

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April 5, 2015

Time to start looking for signs of periodical cicadas

Filed under: Magicicada | Periodical | U.S.A. | Video — Dan @ 1:01 am

Depending on where you live, it might be warm enough for periodical cicadas to start moving around underground, or start digging tunnels to the surface and building cicada “chimneys” above their holes.

What to look for:

1) Animals can hear the cicadas stirring underground, and will try to dig them up and eat them. Look for holes (about the size of a walnut or larger) made by animals digging for cicadas.

Brood II; Cicada Holes

2) Look for cicadas under stones and slates. Some cicadas will burrow their way to the surface, but they hit a large stone or slate and can go no further.

If you find them in this situation, gently put the stone or slate back. They will usually find their way around the obstruction once the time is right.

One clue that a Magicicada nymph is not ready to emerge is its eyes are still white. Their eyes turn red/orange before emerging (a few retain a white/blue color).

3) Cicada holes are about the size of a dime. Cicadas preemptively dig holes to the surface and wait until the weather is nice enough for them to emerge. Sometimes you can see them down in the holes.

Magicicada holes

4) Cicadas form chimneys above their holes when the soil is moist or muddy. These chimneys might look like a simple golf ball-sized dome or a structure over six inches tall.

Photo by Roy Troutman.

Brood II 2013 - Dan Mozgai - Cicada Chimneys

Periodical cicadas typically won’t emerge until their body temperature reaches approximately 65 degrees Fahrenheit (17-19.5 Celsius¹). Their bodies are warmed by surrounding soil or warm water from rain. A good rule of thumb is, if the soil 8 inches(20 cm) deep is 65°F, the conditions are good that they might emerge.

And here’s how to tell if a nymph is ready to molt:

A diagram that shows when a nymph is ready to molt.

¹Heath, J.E. 1968. Thermal synchronization of emergence in periodical “17-year” cicadas (Homoptera. Cicadidae, Magicicada). American Midland Naturalist 80:440—448.

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March 21, 2015

Better IDs for E.A. Seguy Cicada Illustrations

The NCSU Libraries Rare and Unique Digital Collections website recently reminded the us of artist Eugene Alain (E.A.) Seguy’s insect illustrations. Seguy created these illustrations in the 1920’s, and as you might imagine, some of the cicada names cited in the notes for these illustrations have changed. Names typically change when cicadas are reclassified due to discoveries about their biology, or when we realize that someone else had actually named them earlier than the namer currently given credit.

Here are the two illustrations, the accompanying identification, and corrected identifications.

Illustration:

Accompanying identification:

1. Tacua speciosa. Indes; 2. Polyneura ducalis. Indes Or.; 3. Cicada saccata. Australie; 4. Cicada fascialis. Siam; 5. Tozena melanoptera. Indes Or.

Corrected or expanded identification:

Tacua speciosa. This is correct, although there are two subspecies of T. speciosa, I’m going to guess it is Tacua speciosa speciosa (Illiger, 1800) based on the location.
Polyneura ducalis. This is correct. Polyneura ducalis Westwood, 1840.
Cicada saccata. This is now: Thopha saccata (Fabricius, 1803).
Cicada fascialis. This is now: Cryptotympana facialis facialis (Walker, 1858). Update: David Emery says this might be a Cryptotympana acuta (Signoret, 1849).
Tozena melanoptera. Close enough. Tosena melanoptera melanoptera (White, 1846). There are a few unnamed subspecies.

Illustration:

Accompanying identification:

1. Goeana festiva. Indes; 2. Zammara tympanum. Amérique du Sud; 3. Goeana ochracea. Indes; 4. Phenax variegata. Brésil; 5. Hemisciera maculipennis. Amazone

Corrected or expanded identification:

Goeana festiva is actually Callogaeana festiva festiva (Fabricius, 1803).
Zammara tympanum. This is correct. Zammara tympanum (Fabricius, 1803).
Goeana ochracea is way off. It is a Talainga binghami Distant, 1890.
Phenax variegata is not a cicada, is it a fulgoroid planthopper, but the id is correct.
Hemisciera maculipennis is correct. Hemisciera maculipennis (de Laporte, 1832) aka the “Stop and Go” cicada, because its colors resemble the colors of a stop light.

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March 9, 2015

2015 Periodical Cicada Emergences

Filed under: Brood IV | Brood XXIII | Magicicada | Periodical Stragglers — Dan @ 1:06 am

There will be two major periodical cicada emergences in 2015. We’re less that 2 months away!

2015 BROOD IV AND XXIII

Brood XXIII, the Lower Mississippi Valley brood:

This brood of 13 year Magicicada will emerge in Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, Tennessee, Missouri, Kentucky, Illinois, and Indiana. Brood XXIII features all four 13 year Magicicada species M. tredecim, M. neotredecim, M. tredecassini and M. tredecula.

When they’ll emerge depends on the weather. A cool spring will mean the emergences will start later in the spring. Regardless of the weather, the emergences will begin in the Southern-most states, sometime in late April or early to mid May.

Brood XXIII should, depending on the weather, start emerging in less than two months; some time in late April in Louisiana.

Brood IV, the Kansan Brood:

This brood of 17 year Magicicada will emerge in Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, and Iowa. Brood VI features all three 17 year Magicicada species M. septendecim, M. cassini, and M. septendecula.

Brood IV should start emerging in early May.

Brood IV and XXIII won’t emerge in the same year again until the year 2236. The only state that features both Brood XXIII & IV is Missouri, but the areas where they emerge do not overlap.

Stragglers:

The best bet for Stragglers will be Brood VIII (17 year cicadas emerging 4 years early) & XIX (13 year cicadas emerging 4 years late). There is also a chance for III (17yr/1 year late), V (17yr/1 year early), and XXII (13yr/1 year late). Visit our brood page, to see the states where these stragglers might emerge.

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March 4, 2015

New Version of The Cicadidae of Japan

Filed under: Books | Japan — Dan @ 6:08 am

A new version of the Cicadidae of Japan is out. This is not a reprint. It adds new photos and the accompanying CD features new audio recordings.

The book was authored by Dr. M. Haysashi and Dr. Yasumasa Saisho (of the incredible Cicadidae of Japan website).

Cicadidae of Japan

It is available on Amazon in Japan.

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February 23, 2015

Photos of Cicadas of New Zealand

Filed under: Amphipsalta | Kikihia | Maoricicada | New Zealand — Dan @ 8:23 pm

Flickr.com is an excellent source of cicada photos, and it is where I go for cicada photos from New Zealand. This is a sample of the cicada photos you will find on Flickr.com.

The colorful Amphipsalta zealandica:

Photo by Sid Mosdell. Auckland New Zealand. CC BY 2.0.