Northern Dusk Singing Cicada

Description:

This is, I believe, a Northern dusk singing cicada, Tibicen auletes. They are noted for being present in south Georgia during June, so the range fits. Several Tibicen species look very, very similar, so please recognize that this identification should be considered a decently-educated guess. Hopefully I'll pick up some verification from Those-In-The-Know. This elder was found hanging out in my backyard. I suspect he's approaching the end of days, as he made no attempt to fly away and has been hanging out in the same spot all day. Of interest to me in these photographs are the three red dots between the cicada's complex eyes. Those red dots are called dorsal ocelli. They're light-sensitive "simple" eyes. They can't really focus on anything specific (as we tend to think of vision), but instead register differences in light contrast (shadows, horizons, and so on). The last photograph is a cropped and hyper processed version of the first, showing these dorsal ocelli in closer view. Very cool arthropods! [jansonjones http://dusttracks.com]

Notes:

Here is a spotting of a younger Tibicen auletes in its teneral phase, having just emerged from its pupal exoskeleton: http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/118....