Category: Genera

Genera of cicadas.

Categories
Australia Cicada Alphabet Cyclochila Kevin Lee

Cicada Alphabet: G

G is for Greengrocer. The Greengrocer is the green morph of the Australian cicada Cyclochila australasiae. These cicadas can be found in south-eastern Australia. They have a large pronotal collar, and if you use your imagination, it looks like they’re wearing a tiny Pith helmet above their eyes.

Here’s a close of up of a Greengrocer (from Bron):
Green Grocer Cicada

Here’s a box of Greengrocers (from Kevin Lee):
Green Grocers

Categories
Tibicen

What’s in a name?

We’ve discussed, in previous posts, issues with the naming of Tibicen cicadas; first there were gender agreement issues and then the naming of Tibicen tibicen cicadas (which most people still refer to as Tibicen chloromera).

The gender issue deals with agreement of the Genus and species name. Tibicen superba, for instance, should be called Tibicen superbus since the “en” in Tibicen is male, and the ending of suberbus needs to match that with “us”.

Quoting from Bug Guide1:

“All the —a endings in the species of Tibicen need to be —us, e.g. bifida should be bifidus”, per Allen Sanborn (Barry University, Florida), pers. comm., 2008. (Note, many taxonomists working on larger groups, e.g. leps, have abandoned gender agreement, but apparently this isn’t the case with Cicadas. MQ)

The story for Tibicen chloromera is a bit different. First, chloromera needed to be changed to chloromerus because of the gender agreement issue. Then that had to be changed to Tibicen tibicen because historically this particular cicada was referred to as Tibicen tibicen before Tibicen chloromera. This could be changed, if someone found a precedent of the insect being called a Tibicen chloromera, but then still we’d have to call it a Tibicen chloromerus because of the gender agreement issue.

Quoting from Bug Guide again2:

The long-standing name for this common species, Tibicen chlormera, has apparently been changed to Tibicen tibicen based on priority. See Synonyms and references. –Cotinis 17 October 2008.

That being said, most folks on the web call the Tibicen tibicen “Tibicen chloromera” to this day. Whether this is an act of rebellion, force of habit, loyalty to other researchers who don’t agree with the name change, I’m not sure.

Taxonomic name changes discussed, lets move to common Tibicen names.

Our last post featured Elias Bonaros photo of a Tibicen auletes, which I labeled a Scissor-grinder, a common name for the insect — or so I thought. Elias was quick to point out that other resources call another cicada, the Tibicen pruinosus, a Scissor-grinder. Elias is no slouch when it comes to cicada information, and he has correctly corrected me in the past in mistakes I’ve made, but I needed to figure out where i got my possibly erroneous information from.

Bug Guide calles the T. auletes a Scissor-grinder3 as well as Northern Dusk-singing cicada, as does another IOWA State website4.

University of Florida scientists/researchers, on the other hand, call the Tibicen pruinosus5 a Scissor-grinder as does the Song of Insects6 website. The University of Florida document doesn’t provide a common name for T. auletes, but the Song of Insects site refers to them as Northern Dusk-singing Cicadas.

So… any tie breakers out there? It could be that in the South the T. pruinosus is the Scissor-grinder and in the Mid-west it’s the T. auletes.

Here’s my list of references:

  1. Genus Tibicen http://bugguide.net/node/view/5949
  2. Species Tibicen tibicen http://bugguide.net/node/view/6966
  3. Species Tibicen auletes – Scissor-grinder http://bugguide.net/node/view/6968
  4. What is a Locust http://www.ipm.iastate.edu/ipm/hortnews/node/1936
  5. Cicadas (of Florida), Neocicada hieroglyphica (Say), Tibicen, Diceroprocta and Melampsalta spp. (Insecta: Hemiptera: Cicadidae) http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/in602
  6. Song of Insects http://www.musicofnature.com/songsofinsects/iframes/specieslist.html
Categories
Elias Bonaros Megatibicen

Tibicen auletes aka Northern Dusk-singing Cicada

New Tibicen auletes photos from Elias Bonaros.

The Tibicen auletes aka Northern Dusk-singing Cicada is the largest of the Tibicen cicadas in the U.S.A.

Auletes by Elias

Categories
Neocicada Tibicen

Hot weather means cicadas emerge sooner? Most likely.

Temperature is a factor influencing when cicadas will emerge from the earth and enter the adult phase of their lives. Cicadas like warm weather (as do most insects) and so once the soil & air reaches a temperature that pleases the cicadas, they will likely emerge. There are other factors of course, but hotter weather usually means cicadas will emerge sooner than later.

The spring and summer of 2010 have been HOTTER than usual in the mid-Atlantic area of the United States, and so species of cicadas are emerging earlier than expected. Since June first, I’ve witnessed, 32 days above 80F(27C), and 11 days above 90F(32C), in New Jersey, which is warmer than usual.

Annual cicada species like the Tibicen species and Neocicada hieroglyphica have been emerging sooner than expected. Cicadas.info has reports of Neocicada hieroglyphica, Tibicen lyricen and T. tibicen (T. chloromera) emerging sooner than expected. I’ve been hearing T. linnei in New Jersey since June.


Massachusetts Cicadas is reporting a slow start for Tibicen. Massachusetts is a New England state and is typically cooler than Mid-Atlantic states like New Jersey, but that might not be the only factor at work here. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

What else…

The temperature will also affect when a cicada will sing: if it’s too cold cicadas won’t sing, and if it’s too hot the poor over-heated cicadas won’t sing. This is why you won’t hear some annual cicadas singing on a cool day, or when it’s near 100F(38C). This depends on the species too; some species like it HOT, and some like it cool.

I’ve also heard that temperature can affect the frequency of a cicada’s song, however, there is not a formula that allows to you determine the temperature based on the pauses in a cicada’s call like there is for crickets.

Categories
Elias Bonaros Exuvia Okanagana Proto-periodical

Okanagana rimosa nymph skins

The Okanagana rimosa, also known as Say’s Cicada, is a cicada that can be found in the USA in northern states east of the Rockies, like New York, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota and all New England states. Say’s cicada can also be found in the Quebec, Ontario, and Manitoba provinces of Canada.

Say’s Cicada is black and orange; orange legs, orange markings on its mesonotum, and orange bands around most segments of its body. Here’s a photo of an adult:

Okanagana rimosa photo by Natasha from 2005.

A few weeks ago Elias Bonaros sent us some photos of the exuvia (shed skins) of Okanagana rimosa nymphs that he found while searching for cicadas in Western Massachusetts with Gerry from Massachusetts Cicadas. It’s interesting that the black bands that appear around the segments of the nymph’s body are where we see orange bands in the adult form.

Side view

Say’s cicada has a fantastic call that needs to be heard to be appreciated. Visit the Insect Singers website to hear the call of a Okanagana rimosa.

An interesting note about the Okanagana rimosa, it has been showed to have a 9 year life cycle, and appears to be protoperiodical:

“Soper et al (112) showed experimentally that Okanagana rimosa had a life
cycle of 9 years, and that in the field during a 9-year period (1962 to
1970) it was extremely abundant in 4 years and scarce or absent in the
other 5. Heath (32) also studied cicadas of the genus Okanagana and
found several species that appear to be protoperiodical.”

Source.

Categories
Lenny Lampel Magicicada Old Message Board Periodical Roy Troutman

Magicicada Discussions from 2010

Note: no major broods emerged in 2010.

I wanted to mention that I heard several Periodicals(cassini) in blue springs around the first week of June. Maybe a total of about 15 0r 20 in 2 trees.

Comment by Steve Karan — July 1, 2010 [AT] 2:01 pm

Heard a cassini singing in the trees for about 45 minutes today in Loveland. It was finally sunny and warm enough for it after 7 days of cool weather.

Comment by Roy Troutman — May 22, 2010 [AT] 6:15 pm

May 15, 2010 M cassini, Milford, OH (Cincinnati)

Comment by Jennifer Taylor — May 14, 2010 [AT] 7:53 am

I forgot to mention that the greenway is located in Charlotte, North Carolina. The largest concentration of cicadas was observed between the 3-mile and 3.25-mile markers (between Johnston Rd and Hwy 51). Also, several adults had the Massospora cicadina fungal disease.

Comment by Lenny Lampel — May 11, 2010 [AT] 6:05 am

I observed a small emergence of one year early stragglers of Brood XIX on Monday, May 10. There were several dozen calling along a one mile stretch of the Lower McAlpine Greenway. The emergence appeared to be entirely Magicicada tredecassini. Interestingly, the emergence occurred in a floodplain forest. Good numbers of exuviae were observed on wetland shrubs and grasses and numerous live adults were on the ground and flying between trees. Several grackles were seen eating the cicadas and yellow-billed cuckoos and great-crested flycatchers were also in the area and were extremely vocal.

Comment by Lenny Lampel — May 11, 2010 [AT] 5:59 am

Categories
Leptopsaltriini Matt Berger Neocicada

Neocicada hieroglyphica

Here’s a cool photo of a Neocicada hieroglyphica aka Hieroglyphic Cicada (named for the shapes on its back) found by Matt Berger on top of a rocky ridge in the Red River Gorge in Kentucky.

Neocicada hieroglyphica

Read all posts featuring Neocicada photos and video.

Categories
Brood III Gene Kritsky Magicicada

Brood III cicadas are emerging too!

Gene Kritsky wrote us to let us know that Brood III periodical cicadas are emerging in Iowa and Missouri.

Dan,

I wanted to let you know that I have received emails with reports of
emerging periodical cicadas in Iowa and northern Missouri in Brood III
territory. These cicadas would be emerging four years early similar to
the early emergences observed in 2000, 2003, 2004, and 2009.

Cheers,
Gene

It’s been an interesting year so far, with Brood III stragglers emerging 4 years early, Brood XIV emerging 2 years late, and Brood XIX emerging 1 year early.

Check our Brood Chart to see where the next batch of periodical cicadas might emerge.

Check Cicadas @ UCONN for maps.

Categories
Diceroprocta Joe Green Video

Diceroprocta olympusa calling

Joe Green reported that the Diceroprocta olympusa have started calling in Southwest Florida (Lehigh Acres).

Here’s some video featuring their song:

D. olympusa cicada stops when approached in Lehigh by Joe Green

D. olympusa cicada stops when approached in Lehigh by Joe Green from Cicada Mania on Vimeo.

D. olympusa chorus from cage by Joe Green

D. olympusa chorus from cage by Joe Green from Cicada Mania on Vimeo.

D. olympusa pre ticks before calling by Joe Green

D. olympusa pre ticks before calling by Joe Green from Cicada Mania on Vimeo.

Categories
Anapsaltoda Australia David Emery Psaltodini

Anapsaltoda pulchra – Golden Emperors

David Emery emailed us this amazing photo of Anapsaltoda pulchra cicadas. Anapsaltoda pulchra are also known as Golden Emperors. These cicadas are from Herberton, Queensland, Australia.

Anapsaltoda pulchra - Golden Emperors. Photo by David Emery.

Scientific classification:
Family: Cicadidae
Subfamily: Cicadinae
Tribe: Psaltodini
SubTribe: ?
Genus: Anapsaltoda
Species: Anapsaltoda pulchra (Ashton, 1921)

References

Tribe (Psaltodini) information comes from: MARSHALL, DAVID C. et al.A molecular phylogeny of the cicadas (Hemiptera: Cicadidae) with a review of tribe and subfamily classification.Zootaxa, [S.l.], v. 4424, n. 1, p. 1—64, may 2018. ISSN 1175-5334. Available at: https://www.biotaxa.org/Zootaxa/article/view/zootaxa.4424.1.1