Annual Cicada

Description:

Cicadas are flying, plant-sucking insects of the Order Hemiptera; their closest relatives are leafhoppers, treehoppers, and fulgoroids. Adult cicadas tend to be large (most are 25-50mm), with prominent wide-set eyes, short antennae, and clear wings held roof-like over the abdomen. Adults have black, green or olive-patterned bodies, often with a whitish cast on the underside, black eyes and 4 membranous wings with a black or green tinge. Cicadas are probably best known for their conspicuous acoustic signals or "songs", which the males make using special structures called tymbals, found on the abdomen. Adult females have a curved ovipositor at the lower end of the abdomen, used to insert eggs into slits in twigs. Nymphs are tan or brown, wingless, stout, with the front pair of legs specialized for burrowing in soil and for clinging onto trees as they undergo their final molt into adults. All but a few cicada species have multiple-year life cycles, most commonly 2-8 years.

Habitat:

Most common in forested and wooded areas, parks, and forest borders, as eggs are laid in tree twigs and nymphs depend on tree roots for their nourishment. As winged adults, cicadas can fly anywhere, such as into nearby pastures and fields, but they rarely go far from the trees, from which males do most of their raspy calling and where the females lay their eggs.

Notes:

Cicadas, like most “true bugs,” have sucking mouthparts like small, sharp straws. Cicada nymphs live underground, sucking from the roots of trees and other plants. Winged adults can suck plant juices, too, although they live for only a few weeks aboveground. It is very uncommon, but if you let a cicada sit quietly on your hand or arm for a long time, it may jab you with its mouth, mistaking you for a plant—painful, but a harmless accident, and certainly not an act of aggression or even defense.