humanbyweight's Favorites

Visually confirmed this is H. neomexicensis as well. Singing alone from a cholla. It arched its abdomen slightly while singing. In the recording there are several other cicadas calling in the background but the H. neomexicensis is the loudest one closest to the recorder. It starts singing at about 10 seconds in. The photo is a habitat shot.

Cicadetta calliope (floridensis?) Cicadetta floridensis -
Citrus Springs, Citrus County, Florida, USA
June 2, 2009

Usually a bright lime green with pinkish/reddish-tan/brown eyes (+ 3 bright red ocelli!), preserved specimens often loose their color and become dull green or straw-colored.

Cicadetta calliope and floridensis may be sympatric in parts of central Florida.

There is a central Florida variant of C. calliope (id based on the males' calls) that may also be bright lime green as seen in "floridensis", so it may be VERY difficult to differentiate the taxa unless the call was heard and the associated cicada collected.

Cicadetta specimens from central Florida may also be pinkish-tan, tan, straw-colored or orangish in some parts of the range (whether these other color forms are calliope and/or floridensis still remains unresolved).

The "Florida Grass Cicada" is abundant in scrub habitat (oak-pine communities) while calliope is abundant in weedy fields. C. floridensis seems to be most common along the "Highland Ridge" (~Gainesville south to Highlands County west along the Gulf - patchy east along the FL Atlantic coast of central Florida????).

Typically, males of floridnesis can be heard late in the evening in small scrub oaks. The sound produced by the males of floridensis is best described as a subtle clicking-buzz. in contrast, calliope calls from open weedy fields and roadsides and the call is quite different - described as a high pitched whine-buzz devoid of the distinct clicks heard in the calls of floridensis.

Cicadetta floridensis appears to be replaced by C. calliope in the northern FL counties along the Alabama & Georgia borders and in the western FL Panhandle.

Cicadetta floridensis: http://bugguide.net/node/view/375721
Cicadetta calliope: http://bugguide.net/node/view/185883

There may be more than 5 species of Cicadetta in the USA. For details on the Genus as occurs here in the states, please refer to the following: http://bugguide.net/node/view/185882