![\"Magicicada](\"\/images\/Septendecim-HP-700x322.jpg\")
Magicicada septendecim<\/a> aka 17-year Pharaoh Cicada.<\/small><\/p>\n
Magicicada septendecim<\/a> aka 17-year Pharaoh Cicada.<\/small><\/p>\n
Cicadas<\/strong> (Insecta: Hemiptera: Cicadidae) are insects, best known for the songs sung by most, but not all, male cicadas. Males sing by flexing their tymbals<\/strong>, which are drum-like organs found in their abdomens. Small muscles rapidly pull the tymbals in and out of shape. The cicada’s primarily hollow abdomen intensifies the sound.<\/p>\n Female and some male cicadas will also make a sound by flicking their wings, but it isn’t the same as the sound for which cicadas are known.<\/p>\n Cicadas belong to the order Hemiptera<\/strong>, suborder Auchenorrhyncha<\/strong>, superfamily Cicadoidea<\/strong> and families Cicadidae<\/strong> (the vast majority of cicadas) or Tettigarctidae<\/strong> (only two species). There are five subfamilies of Cicadidae: Derotettiginae, Tibicininae, Tettigomyiinae, Cicadettinae, and Cicadinae. Leafhoppers, spittlebugs, and jumping plant lice are close relatives of the cicada. Hemiptera is different from other insects in that both the nymph and adult forms have a beak (aka rostrum), which they use to suck fluids called xylem<\/strong> from plants. This is how they both eat and drink.<\/p>\n The body of a cicada is composed of a head, thorax & abdomen. The head features two antennae, two compound eyes, three simple eyes (ocelli<\/a>), a clypeus that connects the beak to the head (the clypeus looks like the grill of a combustion vehicle). The thorax features two sets of wings (forewings & hindwings), six sets of legs, spiracles for breathing, opercula covering the tympana (“eardrums”), and in males of species that have them, tymbals & tymbal covers. The abdomen features tergites (dorsal) & sternites (ventral), more spiracles for breathing, and reproductive organs. Cicadidae<\/strong> and Tettigarctidae<\/strong> have major differences in anatomy, which you can learn about here<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Latin root<\/strong> for the word for cicada is cicada<\/strong>. Cicadas are called semi<\/strong> in Japan, cigale<\/strong> in France, and cigarra<\/strong> in Spain. Names for cicadas in countries around the world<\/a>. The pronunciation of the word cicada depends on your local dialect. You can say \u201csi-Kah-da\u201d or \u201csi-kay-da\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Magicicada septendecim aka 17-year Pharaoh Cicada. Cicadas (Insecta: Hemiptera: Cicadidae) are insects, best known for the songs sung by most, but not all, male cicadas. Males sing by flexing their tymbals, which are drum-like organs found in their abdomens. Small muscles rapidly pull the tymbals in and out of shape. The cicada’s primarily hollow abdomen […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faqs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cicadamania.com\/cicadas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cicadamania.com\/cicadas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cicadamania.com\/cicadas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cicadamania.com\/cicadas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cicadamania.com\/cicadas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17503"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cicadamania.com\/cicadas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17503\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cicadamania.com\/cicadas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cicadamania.com\/cicadas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cicadamania.com\/cicadas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"tymbals\"](\"\/cicadas\/wp-content\/uploads\/2005\/11\/tymbals-what.png\" "\\"Tymbals\\"")
An illustration of cicada tymbals from C.L. Marlatt’s The Periodical Cicada<\/b>. c shows the muscles and tendons connected to the tymbals, and d & e shows the bending of the tymbal.<\/small><\/p>\n![\"A](\"\/images\/drinking-cicada.jpg\")
A Magicicada drinking from a tree. Photo by Roy Troutman.<\/small><\/p>\n