Updating (9/8) with some photos of an adult male Hieropglyhic cicada.
Updating (6/28) with some more locations: Bass River Park (E Greenbrook Rd), Harrisville Pond, Franklin Parker preserve.
Cicada season started in New Jersey last week with the emergence and singing of Neocicada Hieroglyphica aka the Hieroglyphic cicada. I heard them in Brendan T. Byrne state park and Hammonton. Someone on our Instagram said he heard them in Vineland.
Cicadas.info which specializes in the cicadas of the Mid-Atlantic, has Hieropglyhic cicadas starting around June 8th — this makes sense because they’re found in Florida, as well as more northern states like New Jersey and New York (Long Island).
You can hear their high-pitched screams in this video:
There are two subspecies of Neocicada hieroglyphica: Neocicada hieroglyphica hieroglyphica (Say, 1830) and Neocicada hieroglyphica johannis (Walker, 1850). According to Wm. T. Davis, a key difference is: on N. hieroglyphica johannis, “the black marks on the head, pronotum and mesonotum are more in the form of spots than of continuous lines as in typical hieroglyphica”.
Short Names: N. hieroglyphica hieroglyphica and N. hieroglyphica johannis
Former name/synonyms: Cicada hieroglyphica
Common Name: Hieroglyphic Cicada
When: May-August. Peaks in June.
Where are they found: N. hieroglyphica hieroglyphica is found in AL, AR, DE, FL, GA, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, MD, MS, MO, NJ, NY, NC, OH, OK, SC, TN, TX, VA, and N. hieroglyphica johannis is found in Florida
A description by Wm. T. Davis from MISSISSIPPI CICADAS, WITH A KEY TO THE SPECIES OF THE SOUTHEASTERN UNITED STATES1:
Cicada hieroglyphica Say.
Occurs from Riverhead, Long Island, N. Y., to eastern Kansas and southward. In peninsular Florida the variety johannis Walker replaces the typical form. The black marks on the head, pronotum and mesonotum are more in the form of spots than of continuous lines as in typical hieroglyphica.
The song does not continue long, but sometimes, as in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey, the insects appear in numbers, when their united effort produces a considerable noise.
(1) Davis, W.T. 1918. MISSISSIPPI CICADAS, WITH A KEY TO THE SPECIES OF THE SOUTHEASTERN UNITED STATES. Journal New York Entomological Society. Volume 26. Read it on Archive.org.
Full Binomial Names: ITIS.gov
Common names: BugGuide.net; The Songs of Insects by Lang Elliott and Wil Herschberger; personal memory.
Locations: Biogeography of the Cicadas (Hemiptera: Cicadidae) of North America, North of Mexico by Allen F. Sanborn and Polly K. Phillips.
Descriptions, Colors: personal observations from specimens or photos from many sources. Descriptions are not perfect, but may be helpful.
Notes:
Some descriptions are based on aged specimens which have lost some or a lot of their color.
Tanna japonensis japonensis (Distant, 1892) is a cicada found in Japan. There is another subspecies without a subspecies name (see below).
Scientific classification:
Family: Cicadidae
Subfamily: Cicadinae
Tribe: Leptopsaltriini
SubTribe: Leptopsaltriina (which means slender harp player in Greek)
Genus: Tanna
Subspecies: Tanna japonensis japonensis (Distant, 1892)
Subspecies: Tanna japonensis var. ______ Ishihara, 1939
Photo by Osamu Hikino.
Tanna genus description by W. L. Distant in Genera Insectorum, 1913:
Characters. — Head (including eyes) narrower than base of mesonotum and about as long as space between eyes; lateral margins of pronotum angularly sinuate, but not prominently toothed ; abdomen much longer than space between apex of head and base of cruciform elevation; tympana covered ; opercula small, not or scarcely extending beyond base of abdomen; rostrum reaching the posterior coxae; tegmina and wings hyaline. Closely allied to Leptopsaltria, from which it differs by only having a lateral tubercle on the second and not on the third ventral segment, in other respects resembling the genus Pomponia.
The illustration and genus description comes from the journal Genera Insectorum, and a specific article from 1913 by W. L. Distant titled Homoptera. Fam. Cicadidae, Subfam, Cicadinae. Read it on the Biodiversity Heritage Library website.
Tribe 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
Purana genus description by W. L. Distant in Genera Insectorum, 1913:
Characters. — Head (including eyes) as wide as base of mesonotum and as long as space between eyes; face prominent and convex, its base almost at right angles to the anterior lateral angles of vertex; pronotum narrowed anteriorly, its lateral margins angulated or toothed; mesonotum much longer than pronotum; abdomen moderately conical above, gradually attenuated posteriorly, in male considerably longer than the space between the apex of head and base of cruciform elevation, tubercles on the second and third ventral segments large and prominent; opercula small; tympanal coverings in male broader at base than long; rostrum reaching or a little passing posterior coxae; tegmina and wings hyaline.
References:
The illustration and genus description comes from the journal Genera Insectorum, and a specific article from 1913 by W. L. Distant titled Homoptera. Fam. Cicadidae, Subfam, Cicadinae. Read it on the Biodiversity Heritage Library website.
Tribe 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
Maua genus description by W. L. Distant in Genera Insectorum, 1913:
Characters. — Head (including eyes) as wide as base of mesonotum and as long or a little longer than space between eyes; face prominent and elongately convex, not in a line with vertex; pronotum narrowed anteriorly, its lateral margins angulated or toothed; mesonotum much longer than pronotum; abdomen broad, its apex about or almost as broad as base, in male not or scarcely longer than space between apex of head and base of cruciform elevation, tubercles on the second and third ventral segments very large and prominent, opercula small; tympanal coverings in male sometimes as long as, sometimes shorter than, breadth at base; rostrum reaching, generally considerably passing, the posterior coxa; tegmina and wings hyaline.
References:
The illustration and genus description comes from the journal Genera Insectorum, and a specific article from 1913 by W. L. Distant titled Homoptera. Fam. Cicadidae, Subfam, Cicadinae. Read it on the Biodiversity Heritage Library website.
Leptopsaltria tuberosa (Signoret, 1847) is a cicada found in India, Japan, and on Java (Indonesia), according the the Genera Insectorum, 1913. That’s quite a range.
Leptopsaltria genus description by W. L. Distant in Genera Insectorum, 1913:
Characters. — Head (including eyes), considerably narrower than base of mesonotum, ocelli not quite twice the distance from eyes as from each other, front somewhat conical and subprominent; pronotum with the lateral margins moderately ampliated and more or less distinctly toothed or angulated; genae internally at apex near base of lorae furnished with a tubercle or tumescence; abdomen moderately long and robust; anterior femora distinctly and robustly spined; rostrum extending beyond the posterior coxae; tympana covered; opercula short; second and third abdominal segments in the male furnished with a well-developed tubercle near each lateral margin; tegmina and wings hyaline, venation normal, tegminal apical areas eight in number.
References:
The illustration and genus description comes from the journal Genera Insectorum, and a specific article from 1913 by W. L. Distant titled Homoptera. Fam. Cicadidae, Subfam, Cicadinae. Read it on the Biodiversity Heritage Library website.
Tribe 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
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.
