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Diceroprocta biconica
wooded areas. Cuba and the Florida Keys
First Cicada spotting (though I hear them all the time). I believe the ID is correct, but this are very hard to ID from pictures, so if someone knows better, don't hesitate to correct me. It was on my friends shirt (she freaked out) I placed it on the ground by her garden and took these pics. Her house is next to a mangrove and disturbed field area.
I'll keep it in mind and will contact you if I ever come across any specimen type of this. I found it at one of my best friends home in the Keys. I don't go there that often, but I'll tell her to keep an eye out too.
Given our options as to species id, D. biconica is pretty much it.....and a GOOD FIND! This species is rarely ever photographed.
I have seen a number of specimens for this species, but most have been male. This one does seem to be a "young" female (i.e. emerged several hours before) - noting the silvery appearance. Once the adults have emerged from their nymph cast, they often undergo radical color and pattern changes. In this case, I suspect the insect slowly darkened, the silvery dusting wore off as it developed the chalky white pruinosity typical of its species.
Should you come across casts/molts or dead specimens of D. biconica, please contact me. I would be very interested in some additional reference material of this species. Specimens in hand help with subsequent id's.
Thank you so much Bill for the correction and all the reference info to view. I now can see differences, primarily in the head structure. I'm going to go with your ID and will make the changes. I'll place it under Key's Cicada, although I understand you are not making the species suggestion as a 100% ( probably couldn't be done from these photo anyway) but as a most likely.
btw - your cicada looks very slender, also more suggestive of biconica over olympusa.
Davisi is much more compact and has less of a "neck" (less narrowing behind the head) with more parallel sides to the pronotum (i.e. the segment behind the head).
Good guess, but this is a Diceroprocta species (100%). Although the options are limited regarding species in Florida, this one is a bit strange - and given the pic's a challenge.
There are three species of Diceroprocta in s. Florida. We can eliminate Diceroprocta viridifascia (http://bugguide.net/node/view/26409) because of the smoky "Z" visible in the wing. We can probably also remove olympusa (http://bugguide.net/node/view/136999/bgi...) from the mix - leaving "biconica".
I suspect this is a quasi-teneral Diceroprocta biconica (http://bugguide.net/node/view/262612/bgi...)
Additional ref. images & info.
Compare with Tibicen davisi here: http://bugguide.net/node/view/30367
Spotted on Jul 22, 2012
Submitted on Jul 25, 2012
