Getting to know cicadas
Cicadas are a familiar sound across much of Australia from late spring to summer. The incredibly loud songs of male cicadas calling can reach up to 120 decibels, which is like standing beside an ambulance siren!
After hatching from a tiny egg laid on a branch, Australian cicadas live in the soil as nymphs for years where they feed on tree roots. Their mouth-part is designed for piercing and sucking nutrients from plants. Brown Marmorated Stink Bugs also have mouth-parts for piercing and sucking from plants, but they are an exotic stink bug we want to keep out of Australia.
When the time is right, cicadas crawl out of the ground and up onto trees, shed their skin one final time and zoom around as adults for only a few short weeks.
From alarm clock squawkers (Pauropsalta mneme) to golden twangers (Diemeniana euronotiana) and Cairns bunyips (Tamasa burgessi) there are almost 300 species of named cicadas in Australia. Hundreds more are yet to be scientifically named.
Join the Bug Hunt for cicadas
By taking photos of cicadas and uploading them into iNaturalist, you can help grow our knowledge about where they live and what habitat they like.
In iNaturalist, go to projects, search for ‘Bug Hunt Australia’ and join.
Cicada Gallery
Razor Grinder
Henicopsaltria eydouxii
Eastern Double Drummer
Thopha saccata
Black Prince
Psaltoda plaga
Tips for spotting and photographing cicadas
During the day, be guided by the noise when looking for cicadas! For night time spotting, cicada nymphs often emerge shortly after dusk, so you could try looking at night around trees where you have heard cicadas to potentially find some emerging from the ground.
When taking photos for iNaturalist, remember:
- Have your GPS location turned on.
- Take lots of photos. Slowly move closer to get better focus.
- Upload your shots photos directly through the iNaturalist app, or through your computer at www.inaturalist.org. The app AI may suggest a specific species, but if you’re not confident on the species identification (some species can look quite similar), just select ’Cicada’. Experts in the iNaturalist community can then suggest a more specific identification for you.
- Adding a photo or some notes about the type of environment or the tree the cicadas are on, can help build knowledge about what kind of habitat they like.
As each species of cicada has a unique call, you can also upload sound recordings of cicada calls to iNaturalist for identification.
Backyard cicadas
Even in busy cities like Sydney and Melbourne, in the warmer months of the year you can find cicadas like green grocers (Cyclochila australasiae), redeye cicadas (Psaltoda moerens) and silver princesses (Yoyetta celis)
To find out what cicadas are being observed near you, go to www.inaturalist.org/observations and search for ‘cicadas’ in your location.