Distantalna splendida splendida is a cicada found in China, Thailand, India, Burma, Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam. It is formerly known as Tosena splendida. It is known in pop culture as the basis for the Cicada 3301 logo.
Body above black; front with a reddish spot at each basal angle; eyes, two small spots on vertex, four large spots to pronotum (two on disk and one at each posterior lateral angle) and two spots on disk of mesonotum,* luteous. Body beneath and legs black; lateral margins of the face, a wide central annulation to femora, and a central discal series of subtriangular spots, sanguineous.
Tegmina and wings— where not obscured by darker markings— pale hyaline, exhibiting varied opaline luster, which in some lights is found to be ornamented with close and regular series of transverse darker strife ; tegmina at base (narrowly) and costal membrane shining blackish ; venation bright luteous and for two-thirds from base broadly margined with shining blackish, and a series of shining blackish marginal spots on the apices of longitudinal veins to apical areas largest and somewhat fused at apex; claval area pale greenish. Wings pale greenish for nearly two-thirds their area from the base; remaining apical area shining blackish, enclosing a submarginal series of pale opaline spots, of which the largest are subapical.
New Tribe: Hill Kathy B. R., Marshall David C., Marathe Kiran, Moulds Maxwell S., Lee Young June, Pham Thai-Hong, Mohagan Alma B., Sarkar Vivek, Price Benjamin W., Duffels J. P., Schouten Marieke A., de Boer Arnold J., Kunte Krushnamegh, Simon Chris (2021) The molecular systematics and diversification of a taxonomically unstable group of Asian cicada tribes related to Cicadini Latreille, 1802 (Hemiptera:Cicadidae). Invertebrate Systematics 35, 570-601. https://doi.org/10.1071/IS20079
Paratalainga distanti (Jacobi, 1902) is a cicada found in Vietnam, Thailand… and likely adjacent nations. One thing that makes this cicada unique, as well as other members of the tribe Talaingini, is the large number of cells that compose its forewings (tegmina with the nervuration densely reticulate).
Paratalainga distanti photo by Richard Newfrock:
Specimen identified using the book The Cicadas of Thailand vol 2 by Michel Boulard (page 286).
Male: Body above black; eyes fuscous; the anal segment of the abdomen with an ochraceous spot on each side. Body beneath and legs black; a spot at the anterior margin of the face, two marginal spots between face and eyes, lateral margins of face, femoral streaks, posterior tibiae (excluding bases and apices), margins of opercula, segmental margins (excluding disk), and apex of terminal segment, dark ochraceous.
Tegmina and wings hyaline, the venation fuscous; tegmina with the costal membrane castaneous, its extreme costal edge blackish, the post-costal area blackish; basal cell black; about the basal third of tegmina and the subcostal area to ax^es pale castaneous. Wings with about basal half irregularly very dark castaneous.
The opercula extend to about half the length of the abdomen, slightly overlap at the basal margin, somewhat concavely and obliquely sinuate at outer margins, and inwardly beyond base widely divergent to apices, which are narrowly and obtusely convex.
Megatibicen cultriformis (Davis, 1915), aka the Grand Western Flood Plain Cicada, is large cicada found in the states Arizona and New Mexico in the U.S. and in Mexico. According to the Biogeography of the Cicadas (Hemiptera: Cicadidae) of North America, North of Mexico by Allen F. Sanborn and Polly K. Phillips, it is found in the Mexican Highland Section of the Basin and Range Province of the Sonoran Desert, and is associated with cottonwood and willow trees1.
Over the weekend, cicada collector Richard Newfrock emailed me some cicada photos for identification. Amongst those photos was what appears to be Megatibicen cultriformis labeled Escondido, Cal[iforia]. I asked Richard about the location, and sure enough, he said they were found in a pool in Escondido. I double-checked the species and location with top-tier cicada experts Jeffery Cole and David Marshall. From our conversation, I believe they agreed that the cicadas appeared to be M. cultriformis and that Escondido is far from its normal range (about 400 miles away).
Female (left), Male (right). Found floating in a pool.
So, how did these cicadas Megatibicen cultriformis end up in Escondido? More than likely, if they are truly M. cultriformis, they hitchhiked on a tree transported from Arizona to California — or as David Marshall said to me in an email, “it’s at least possible that cultriformis could have been introduced on the roots of saplings transplanted from Arizona”.
Does anyone in the Escondido area want to listen for these cicadas in the summer and report back to us if you hear them?
William T Davis’s description from A New Cicada from Arizona2:
Resembles Cicada marginata Say [now called Megatibicen pronotalis walkeri Metcalf, 1955] in size, color, and markings. Head black with an oblong greenish yellow spot each side between the eyes and a small spot of the same color on the front just above the transverse rugae. Pronotum greenish yellow with a large, conspicuous black spot occupying the fore part of its central area. The hind margin of the pronotum (collar) is entirely unicolorous as in marginata. The mesonotum is black, with a pruinose band each side at the base of the wings; the elevated x is greenish yellow, and there are two conspicuous, irregularly formed (pipe-shaped) greenish yellow spots occupying its central portion. The tergum is black, each side broadly margined with pruinose, and the segments have their posterior margins yellowish. There is also an indication of a dorsal line of pruinose spots on the tergum, which in the type have been nearly worn off. Beneath the head is blackish, the remainder of the insect being greenish yellow and more or less pruinose. The costal margin of the fore wing is entirely greenish yellow, darkened beyond the middle, and the w-mark is inconspicuous. Both fore and hind wings are greenish-yellow at base, with the veins darkened beyond the middle.
Note that greens often fade to tannish colors after a cicada dies.
Trivia: In Latin, “cultr” means knife, and “form” means shape — cultriformis means knife-shaped. Davis named cultriformis because “uncus locks, which are s millimeters long in cultriformis, and when seen in profile are shaped like the blade of a pruning knife, hence the name.” The uncus is the male genitalia.
A New Cicada from Arizona. Davis, William T. 1915. Journal of the New York Entomological Society. Vol 23. Pages 239-241.Read it on biodiversitylibrary.org.
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Calliopsida cinnabarina aka the Cinnabar Cicada is named for its coloration, which resembles the red mineral cinnabar (a source of mercury). It is found in Argentina.
Photo by cicada collector Richard Newfrock:
Thanks to Geert Goemans for the ID of the photo.
Luis Delétang’s notes on the wings of C. cinnabarina from Monografia de los cicádidos (Cicadidæ) Argentinos y relación de estos con la fauna sudamericana. 1923. Translated from Spanish to English.
Only once have I been able to study a case of nervation suppression. A (J of Chonosia cinnabarina (Berg) {Tettigades cinnabarina Berg) from the province of Mendoza presents tegminas whose transverse ribs of the seventh apical cells have disappeared and this suppression has given rise to the formation, with the help of the cubital cells, of abnormal cells comparable to the base apses of the wings.
Luis Delétang general notes on C. cinnabarina from Contribución al estudio de los Cicádidos (Cicadidae) argentinos (Hemiptera-Homoptera) ensayo filogenético. 1919. Translated from Spanish to English.
This species, common in the provinces of Cuyo, has been described by Berg on specimens from the province of Mendoza, and recently I received it from the province of Tucuman. The red coloration of the body, the preanal segment, the apical cells of the tegminas, etc., distinguish well the cinnabarina of its Argentine congener.
Monografia de los cicádidos (Cicadidæ) Argentinos y relación de estos con la fauna sudamericana. Delétang, Luis F. 1923. Anales del Museo Nacional de Historia Natural de Buenos Aires. Vol 31. Page 633. Read it on the Biodiversity Heritage Library.
Contribución al estudio de los Cicádidos (Cicadidae) argentinos (Hemiptera-Homoptera) ensayo filogenético. Delétang, Luis F. 1919. Anales de la Sociedad CientÃfica Argentina. Vol 88. Page 92. Read it on the Biodiversity Heritage Library.
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