Category: Tibicina

A cicada… in England?!

Post author By Dan
Post date August 15, 2021

A few years back a project was launched to discover if the New Forest cicada (Cicadetta montana) still exists in England. It once existed in southern England for sure, but seems to have gone extinct. To date, none have been found.

Recently a cicada was reported found in England on iNaturalist, appearing to belong to the genus Tibicina. The best resource for European cicadas is SONGS OF EUROPEAN SINGING CICADAS. Looking at the navigation of the website it looks like there are nine Tibicina in Europe (maybe more). The cicada on iNaturalist is brown with orange highlights: u-shaped marks on its mesonotum, an orange outline of its pronotal collar, and an orange line down the middle of its head. Wing veins appear brown & black and appear to be warped during the molting process. It might be teneral — still soft from the molting process — and so its adult colors have not fully developed.

So — is it a native to England or a stowaway in some cargo from mainland Europe?

The Twitter account @MorphoCicada posted this on Twitter, which alerted me to the matter.

Tibicina haematodes (Scopoli 1763) stamp from France

Post author By Dan
Post date July 12, 2020

Here’s a Tibicina haematodes (Scopoli 1763) stamp from France:

Tibicina haematodes (Scopoli 1763) stamp from France

India Oriental Cicadidae Tibicina Tibicinini W. L. Distant

Tibicina casyapae (Distant, 1888)

Post author By Dan
Post date January 24, 2019

Tibicina casyapae (Distant, 1888) is a cicada found in India and Afganastan.

Tibicina casyapae was formerly known as Tibicen casyapae. It was moved from the Tibicen Latreille, 1825 genus to the Tibicina Kolenati, 1857 genus.

Scientific classification:
Family: Cicadidae
Subfamily: Cicadettinae
Tribe: Tibicinini
SubTribe: Tibicinina
Genus: Tibicina
Species: Tibicina casyapae (Distant, 1888)

Tibicina casyapae (Distant, 1888)

[female] Head black; margins of front, ocelli, and a small central basal spot, dull reddish; eyes ochraceous. Pronotum dull reddish, the margins and two central longitudinal lines black. Mesonotum black; two central ” antler “- shaped fasciae, the lateral margins, and the basal cruciform elevation, dull reddish, the anterior angles of the last black. Abdomen above black. Body beneath black, somewhat greyishly pilose; face red, its central longitudinal sulcation black; rostrum black; legs reddish, the femora streaked with black beneath.

Tegmina and wings pale hyaline, their bases dull reddish, the venation blackish; the costal membrane of tegmina ochraceous.

The face is large, but laterally compressed and strongly striated, with a profound central longitudinal sulcation. The rostrum about reaches the intermediate coxae; the legs are robust, and the anterior femora have a strong spine beneath at apex and a similar spine near base.

Long. excl. tegm. [female] , 35 millim. Exp. tegm. 90 millim.

References:

The illustration, description and location information comes from A Monograph of Oriental Cicadas by W. L. Distant. 1889-1892. Read it on the Biodiversity Heritage Library website.
Species name information comes from Allen Sanborn’s Catalogue of the Cicadoidea (Hemiptera: Auchenorrhyncha).
Nast, J., 1972a. Palaearctic Auchenorrhyncha (Homoptera). An annotated check list. Warszawa: Polish Sci. Publ. 550 p. (records).