Here’s a video of a Neotibicen lyricen nymph crawling up the trunk of a fir tree, looking for a place to molt. Note the dark eyes and green wing buds. This particular pine tree is my go-to for Lyric cicadas. Here’s another: Neotibicen lyricen molting.
Cicada orni (Ash Cicada) is a cicada found in many European & Asian countries, including Spain, Turkey, Albania, Austria, Cyprus, Czechoslovakia, Egypt, France, Greece, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Jordan, Lebanon, Romania, Switzerland, and Yugoslavia. It is also known as the Ash cicada.
Photo by Iván Jesus Torresano García taken in Spain.
A video by Iván Jesus Torresano García taken in Spain.:
Thanks to Vera L. Nunes for letting us know about a newly described/discovered cicada named Berberigetta dimelodica.
Berberigetta is also a new genus, belonging to the Tribe Cicadettini.
See and listen to it in this YouTube video:
The paper than describes the species is:
Gonçalo João Costa, Vera L. Nunes, Eduardo Marabuto, Raquel Mendes, Telma G. Laurentino, José Alberto Quartau, Octávio S. Paulo, Paula Cristina Simões. 2017. Morphology, songs and genetics identify two new cicada species from Morocco: Tettigettalna afroamissa sp. nov. and Berberigetta dimelodica gen. nov. & sp. nov. (Hemiptera: Cicadettini). Zootaxa. Vol 4237, No 3.
Morocco has been the subject of very few expeditions on the last century with the objective of studying small cicadas. In the summer of 2014 an expedition was carried out to Morocco to update our knowledge with acoustic recordings and genetic data of these poorly known species. We describe here two new small-sized cicadas that could not be directly assigned to any species of North African cicadas: Tettigettalna afroamissa sp. nov. and Berberigetta dimelodica gen. nov. & sp. nov. In respect to T. afroamissa it is the first species of the genus to be found outside Europe and we frame this taxon within the evolutionary history of the genus. Acoustic analysis of this species allows us to confidently separate T. afroamissa from its congeners. With B. dimelodica, a small species showing a remarkable calling song characterized by an abrupt frequency modulation, a new genus had to be erected. Bayesian inference and maximum likelihood phylogenetic analyses with DNA-barcode sequences of Cytochrome C Oxidase 1 support the monophyly of both species, their distinctness and revealed genetic structure within B. dimelodica. Alongside the descriptions we also provide GPS coordinates of collection points, distributions and habitat preferences.
I took a lot of cicada photos and video when I traveled to Maryland, West Virginia and Ohio. Matt Berger also contributed a gallery of cicada photos to the site.
If you’re writing an article about the coming emergence of the 17-year periodical cicadas, please use the correct genus & species of cicadas.
The genus of all 17-year cicadas is Magicicada, and they are never green. The three species of 17-year cicadas are Magicicada septendecim, Magicicada cassini, and Magicicada septendecula. They’re all black with orange wings and legs and red eyes (some exceptions, but they’re never green). The four species of 13-year cicadas are Magicicada neotredecim, Magicicada tredecim, Magicicada tredecassini and Magicicada tredecula (also never green). More information about these species.
An adult Magicicada septendecim by Dan Mozgai/cicadamania.com:
An adult Magicicada septendecim by Dan Mozgai/cicadamania.com:
A newly emerged, teneral, Magicicada septendecim by Dan Mozgai/cicadamania.com:
For the sake of cicada correctness, feel free to use them in your article. Just credit cicadamania.com.
If you are looking to license Magicicada images or HD Video, Roy Troutman has plenty of both. Reach out to him if interested. His images and video are tagged throughout the site.
Hundreds of shed cicada skins (exuvia) by Troutman:
Click/tap for a larger version:
Wrong Cicadas:
If the cicada you use in your article is green, it isn’t a 17-year cicada. I repeat: if the cicada is green it is not a 17-year cicada.
The cicada at the top of the Wikipedia page for cicadas is not a 17-year cicada, it’s an annual cicada called Neotibicen linnei:
Depending on where you live, it might be warm enough for periodical cicadas to start moving around underground, or start digging tunnels to the surface and building cicada “chimneys” above their holes.
What to look for:
1) Animals can hear the cicadas stirring underground, and will try to dig them up and eat them. Look for holes (about the size of a walnut or larger) made by animals digging for cicadas.
2) Look for cicadas under stones and slates. Some cicadas will burrow their way to the surface, but they hit a large stone or slate and can go no further.
If you find them in this situation, gently put the stone or slate back. They will usually find their way around the obstruction once the time is right.
One clue that a Magicicada nymph is not ready to emerge is its eyes are still white. Their eyes turn red/orange before emerging (a few retain a white/blue color).
3) Cicada holes are about the size of a dime. Cicadas preemptively dig holes to the surface and wait until the weather is nice enough for them to emerge. Sometimes you can see them down in the holes.
4) Cicadas form chimneys above their holes when the soil is moist or muddy. These chimneys might look like a simple golf ball-sized dome or a structure over six inches tall.
Photo by Roy Troutman.
Periodical cicadas typically won’t emerge until their body temperature reaches approximately 65 degrees Fahrenheit (17-19.5 Celsius1). Their bodies are warmed by surrounding soil or warm water from rain. A good rule of thumb is, if the soil 8 inches(20 cm) deep is 65°F, the conditions are good that they might emerge.