General Description

Wings are transparent with distinct veins. Body usually green, but can be yellow or orange. Adult approximately 4 cm in body with a wing span of between 11-13 cm.

Biology

Australia is home to one of the loudest insects in the world which can reach an ear-piercing 150 decibels! The sound is made by the rapid buckling of the timbal ribs (the cicadas eardrum membrane) and amplified by resonation in an air sac behind the eardrum. Cyclochila australasiae, has a wide variety of common names including the Green Grocer or Great Green Cicada. Various colour forms also have different common names such as Yellow Monday for a common yellow morph, Chocolate Soldier for a rare dark tan form and Blue Moon for a rare turquoise form. The Masked Devil form is an orange brown form with a black mask across the eye that is more common at higher altitudes. The adult female uses her sharp ovipositor to pierce the bark of twigs into which she deposits her eggs. The nymphs hatch and fall to the ground where they dig down until they find the trees root system. Here the cicada nymphs spend the next 7 years underground sucking sap from the roots of trees before emerging as an adult that lives for about 6 weeks. When it is time for the adult to emerge, the nymph makes it way to the surface of the ground and climbs up into the tree. This is mainly done so as to provide plenty of space to unfold their wings allowing them to dry (a period taking about 30 minutes). If there is not enough space below the cicada body to expand the wings they will be deformed when hardened and not able to be used for flight.

Distribution

Eastern mainland Australia.

Habitat

Dry and wet sclerophyll forests, also trees in urban areas

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