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Tibicen tibicen found in Lake St. Louis, MO

Sightings Category: Cicadas

Tibicen tibicen found in Lake St. Louis, MO

While I was wandering around behind the local Walmart searching for the ever elusive T. auletes, I came across what I suspect to be a female T. tibicen cicada which I though was interesting.

Notice anything unusual for a T. tibicen(?)? The pronotal collar is mostly olive green!

Very unusual indeed as the local T. tibicen cicadas around here have black pronotal collars. Sometimes, you will see them with just a little splash of green on the sides of the pronotal collar, but this is the first one I've seen with a mostly green collar. Also, her McDonald's "golden arches" are substantially more well defined than the usual local T. tibicen and is more like what one would find on a T. lyricen around these parts.

Anyway, I just thought you might like to take a look at it; and, I'd be interested to hear your take on it.
Dimensions:
Head to wingtips (folded) = 4.8 cm
Body length = 3.24 cm
Eye to eye (outside measurement) = 14.26 mm

Cheers

P.S. - I have a ventral view if you want it, but I'm limited to uploading only 3 pics and figured I would go for the "money shots" (plus, I'm kind of showing off the new macro lens I just finished making for my camera). Anyway, she (the cicada)lacks a ventral stripe and her legs are a light greenish color.

Date Posted: 2011-08-24 Comments: (1) Show Comments Hide Comments

Comments

Posted By: Massachusetts Cicadas | On: 2011-08-28 | Website:

Hey Bill,

Thanks for the cool photos. Typically the green pronotal collar is something we see quite often in T. tibicen females, though on occassion we do see it in males but the variation is most often seen in the former. That being said, the green pronotal collar is a key to another species very similar to T. tibicen and is found in Florida, Alabama and parts of Georgia. That species is known as Tibicen australis. The calling songs of the males are very similar to T. tibicen.

Other morphological features to Tibicen australis are very notable patterns of green and red on the mesonotum and unusually large pruinose spots at the base of the abdomen. Your specimen has the normal small spots which would make it definitely T. tibicen. Still though, very cool photos. Thanks for noting this unusual variation in T. tibicen.

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