Cicada ManiaCicada researcher and communicator Dr. Gene Kritsky has a new book about Brood XIX and XIII which are both emerging in the spring of 2024: A Tale of Two Broods: The 2024 Emergence of Periodical Cicada Broods XIII and XIX. It is available in paperback and Kindle formats.
Other posts about Dr. Gene Kritsky on this site:
Cicadas are a favorite food of fish, so anglers use lures that emulate cicadas. When there is a large emergence aka “hatch” of cicadas, it can drive the fish into a feeding frenzy, which anglers take advantage of.
There’s a new book called Cicada Madness by author Dave Zielinski that focuses on “timing, fishing techniques, and patterns for cracking the code of epic emergences”. The book features images by myself, Roy Troutman, and others. The book is 164 pages long and features 39 pages of fly patterns.
CGWiber of the Dutch John Resort of Flaming Gorge Reservoir, Utah, sent us these cicada photos. CGWiber enjoys fly fishing and “matching the hatch”, which means using fly fishing lures that match the characteristics of cicadas. Cicadas are a favorite food of game fish like trout. They can have years of great abundance. You’ll find them near water because there is more vegetation near water, which is why fish get ahold of them.
Okanagana cicada. It looks like Okanagana magnifica, but I’m not sure.
Okanagana cicada. Looks like Okanagana magnifica. It is about the length of two human phalanges:
Platypedia cicada.
Platypedia cicada. See how tiny they can be? Smaller than one human phalanx.
Okanagana and Platypedia are visually similar.
With few exceptions, both cicadas are primarily black with orange or beige highlights, both can be “hairy”, and both are common west of the Mississippi.
Platypedia tend to be smaller than Okanagana, many have a line down their pronotum, and they make sound by clapping their wings against their bodies. Okanagana make sound by vibrating their tymbals.
Thanks to cicada researcher Jeff Cole, Ph.D., for this tip: “From the side with the wings folded Platypedia have the node on the forewing way out towards the apex, while Okanagana and Tibicinoides will have the node located more or less in the middle of the wing.”
This cicada is a Platypleura kaempferi. The photo comes from us from Richard Newfrock. Platypleura kaempferi is a member of the tribe Platypleurini. P. kaempfer is found in China, South Korea, Japan and other locations — even Poland (but that cicada was likely transported along with produce or in the root ball of a plant). Platypleura means flat/broad sides, and kaempferi likely refers to Emil Kaempfer or Kaempfer’s woodpecker, whose wing resembles the wing of the cicada.
There are three species of Platypleura kaempferi1 (I don’t know what distinguishes them. I don’t see the separate subspecies on iNaturalist either):
Here’s the iNaturalist collection of Platypleura kaempferi photos.
Here’s a comparison of the wing of Kaempfer’s Woodpecker with out possible Platypleura kaempferi:
Although the woodpecker and cicada resemble each other, Yasumasa Saisho let us know that Platypleura kaempferi was described by the German biologist Engelbert Kämpfer, and its scientific name is derived from it.
Richard Newfrock took the photo of the cicada, and Joao Quental took the photo of Kaempfer’s Woodpecker (Celeus obrieni, Caxias, Maranhão, Brasil) which is under a CC BY 2.0 license.
1 Catalogue of the Cicadoidea (Hemiptera: Auchenorrhyncha). DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-416647-9.00001-2 © 2014 Elsevier Inc.
This is a Yanga pulverea from Moramonga, Madagascar from the collection of Richard Newfrock.
Yanga pulverea belongs to the cicada tribe Platypleurini, which are known for their prominent pronotal collars and infuscations on their wings. Platy means broad & flat, and pleur means side. Broad side, flat side. I don’t know the root of the word Yanga, but pulverea means power or dust. Here’s photos of living Y. pulvera on iNaturalist.
Scientific classification:
Family: Cicadidae
Subfamily: Cicadinae
Tribe: Cryptotympanini
SubTribe: Cryptotympanina
Genus: Cacama
Species: Cacama collinaplaga Sanborn and Heath in Sanborn, Heath, Phillips and Heath, 2011
Scientific classification:
Family: Cicadidae
Subfamily: Cicadinae
Tribe: Cryptotympanini
SubTribe: Cryptotympanina
Genus: Cacama
Species: Cacama variegata Davis, 1919
Family: Cicadidae
Subfamily: Cicadinae
Tribe: Cryptotympanini
Subtribe: Cryptotympanina
Genus: Diceroprocta
Species: Diceroprocta bibbyi Davis, 1928
Family: Cicadidae
Subfamily: Cicadinae
Tribe: Cryptotympanini
Subtribe: Cryptotympanina
Genus: Diceroprocta
Species: Diceroprocta canescens Davis, 1935
Family: Cicadidae
Subfamily: Cicadinae
Tribe: Cryptotympanini
Subtribe: Cryptotympanina
Genus: Diceroprocta
Species: Diceroprocta lata Davis, 1941