There’s been plenty of cicada activity this Summer, both in the bush and on local blogs (here, here and here). Their calls, or song, are the hallmark of a hot Summer and are usually the easiest way to identify the species in your area (here again). As I write, I can hear at least three species calling in the surrounding forest. But, identifying the real thing can be a bit trickier – a cicada in the hand is not necessarily worth two in the bush. At our recent Violet Town Mothing Evening in Nov. 2012, (part of the SR CMN’s Butterfly festival), the moth sheet set along Honeysuckle Ck in town (near the bowls club) seemed to attracted as many cicadas as moths. With our focus well and truly on moths, we paid scant attention to the cicadas and only got a few ordinary pics of them (see below) and no specimens. One month later (and 300 m higher), whilst working and walking along the Seven Creeks at Strathbogie, I noticed nymphs of a similar looking cicada species emerge from their underground home and climb up the nearest vertical structure (a tree, car tyre, wooden post), and they did it in their hundreds. It was an amazing sight! The newly emerged nymphs are not fully pigmented and look quite different to the adult.
I’ve struggled to ID the specimen illustrated here, partly because I’m not sure what song/s they ‘sing’ and also because I know very little about cicadas. After correspondence with Peter Marriott who led the mothing evening and who prompted the closer examination of the Violet Town observations, I bought Max Mould’s 1990 guide to Australian Cicadas (only available second hand). According to that text and subsequent advice from the author, the Strathbogie specimens most closely resemble Cicadetta abdominalis (no common name), and the Violet town specimens are most likely Cicadetta landsboroughi.
After having a good look at Max Mould’s guide, I’m now convinced that I knew even less about Cicadas than I thought; cicadas are truly fascinating organisms and largely because they spend so much of their life underground in larval form, relatively little is known about them. And, as with many other insect groups, because there’s so much more to learn, the names we use to identify and describe them change on occasion. For a review of the genera of Australian cicadas, free-download Max Mould’s 2012 monograph on the subject: http://mapress.com/zootaxa/2012/f/zt03287p262.pdf. And by the way, the genus of the above species has been renamed Yoyetta, as per the image captions.
Australia has a rich cicada fauna with over 200 described species, of which 198 (98%) are endemic! Although they fly, they are not particularly mobile, adults spending their lives pretty close to home. Notwithstanding this, many species have wide distributions and cicadas occur in almost every part of Australia (Moulds 1990).
I knew we had the Redeye (Psaltoda moerens) and Greengrocer (Cyclochila australasiae) around here, but it seems certain that there are other species as well – in future I’ll have to pay more attention to these Summer specialists.
Thanks to Peter Marriott and Dr. Max Moulds for comment and advice.
For on-line information about Australian cicadas see:
The cicadas on central and eastern Australia.
Hi Bert,
Thanks for your reply. Much of our understanding of cicada natural history and taxonomy is ‘under construction’, so any knew observations like yours are invaluable.
I recently stumbled across specimen records of Small Treetop Ticker from western Sydney in David Emery’s collection. After that, I noticed the photo of what looks very much like the same species on your blog page. It is a significant range extension (for a species previously collected only from southern Queensland and northern New South Wales). However, such extensions can be expected simply because cicada observations over much of Australia have been very limited. These insects are highly seasonal and generally difficult to detect unless someone goes to the trouble of recording the songs, chasing the adults with a net or running a light trap (as you have done). The majority of our cicadas are still undescribed and we know very little about many of them.
All of your Violet Town cicada specimens in the photographs (apart from Small Treetop Ticker) are River Ambertail. Live specimens of River Ambertail have red eyes, whereas those of Yoyetta landsboroughi have dull grey eyes. They also exhibit some other small differences that become apparent after dissection. Nathan Emery, David Emery and I are currently in the process of formally describing River Ambertail (which can presently be untreated as an undescribed species in the Yoyetta landsboroughi complex). So Max Mould’s ID was quite accurate and the identity of Y. landsboroughi is simply in the process of refinement.
Unfortunately, these changes will not be seen on my old UQ website because I have been unable to update it since graduating from the university many years ago. However, you can find the most up to date concepts of the Australian cicada species on my new website. The page most relevant to this discussion is the one for the genus Yoyetta, which can be accessed here: http://dr-pop.net/yoyetta.htm . I hope that helps to clarify any confusion and I also hope that you encounter some more cicadas this summer.
Best regards,
Lindsay.
Hi Lindsay – thanks for the comment and ID’s on Strathbogie Ranges Nature View blog. I often wonder who in the world reads the posts, so it’s a pleasant surprise when there’s constructive, informative feedback.
I know very little about cicadas and I must admit to now feeling a little more confused.
Isn’t the Small Treetop Ticker the species Cicadetta sp. nr tristrigata, which only occurs in southern QLD, according to your uq.edu.au website? Is this a major range extension?
You suggest there’s a diff btn Yoyetta landsboroughi and River Ambertail (Cicadetta landsboroughi on uq.edu.au); I assumed it was just a nomenclature change, but are they separate species?
I’m not sure which of the images on the blog relate to your River Ambertail ID:
https://strathbogierangesnatureview.wordpress.com/2013/01/18/cicada-summer/#jp-carousel-4219
(ID’d by Max Moulds as Yoyetta ?landsboroughi) or
https://strathbogierangesnatureview.wordpress.com/2013/01/18/cicada-summer/#jp-carousel-4218
or
https://strathbogierangesnatureview.wordpress.com/2013/01/18/cicada-summer/#jp-carousel-4241
Regards
Bert
Hi Bert, Lindsay Popple (above) and I are also trying to consolidate the distribution of species of Victorian cicadas and your blog is great. We have also contacted Victorian entomology Society members for sightings, specimens or songs recorded onto i-phones during the upcoming cicada season to help with identification and description. Anything for your region would be superb, as we are based in NSW and Qld and can’t cover all the territory!
Hi Bert,
I am the author of ‘The cicadas of central eastern Australia’. Great post and observations! Thank you for taking the time to write about this massive emergence of cicadas. I have mentioned some of your observations on my new website (http://dr-pop.net) and have included a link to this post in my latest blog entry (http://blog.dr-pop.net). Your Violet Town Cicada photographs actually show two species: River Ambertail (dark with red-eyes) and Small Treetop Ticker (paler with dull eyes, photograph on bottom right of your post). Both of these species are indeed related to Yoyetta landsboroughi. More information on these species and many other types of Yoyetta can be found on my new website.
Thanks again and best wishes,
Lindsay.