Hi Jodi,
Your cicadas (Thopha colorata)are orange and restricted to the centre (Alice) while the “double drummer” (Thopha saccata)is around twice the size, brown and located in coastal eastern Aussie bushland. See the book “australian cicadas” by Max Moulds or go into the web for images (or in cicada mania archives). The orange forms of the “Green grocer” (“masked devil/ yellow monday”) are a different genus and don’t have the thoracic markings of the Thophas (and they emerge earlier and sing in smaller shrubs and trees than the Thophas that are up the tops of tall gums!). The “GGs” are also coastal and not in the arid centre.
Cheers, David.
Thank you. That ID’d my friend’s cicada for me. Is an orange drummer different from a double drummer? And how can you tell the difference between an orange Yellow Monday and either of the other two?
Cheers,
Chris.
Hey, Great shots Jodi- collect a few for a Sydney collector please. These guys are also called “W-bugs” for obvious reasons.
David.
Cicada Mania
4 replies on “Orange Drummer cicadas”
Hi Jodi,
Your cicadas (Thopha colorata)are orange and restricted to the centre (Alice) while the “double drummer” (Thopha saccata)is around twice the size, brown and located in coastal eastern Aussie bushland. See the book “australian cicadas” by Max Moulds or go into the web for images (or in cicada mania archives). The orange forms of the “Green grocer” (“masked devil/ yellow monday”) are a different genus and don’t have the thoracic markings of the Thophas (and they emerge earlier and sing in smaller shrubs and trees than the Thophas that are up the tops of tall gums!). The “GGs” are also coastal and not in the arid centre.
Cheers, David.
Thank you. That ID’d my friend’s cicada for me. Is an orange drummer different from a double drummer? And how can you tell the difference between an orange Yellow Monday and either of the other two?
Cheers,
Chris.
Hey, Great shots Jodi- collect a few for a Sydney collector please. These guys are also called “W-bugs” for obvious reasons.
David.