One of the loudest insects
Its song can reach 120 decibels at close range: as loud as a rock concert.
The backyard · Flies and true bugs
Green grocer cicada
Cyclochila australasiae
A big, bright green insect with a broad head, red eyes set far apart, and clear, glassy wings.
- Size
- About 4cm long, wingspan 11 to 13cm
- Look for it
- October to December, then January to January
- Where
- Trees in gardens, parks and forests of south-eastern Australia
Whirrs after you and clings on when it lands. Move your pointer and see.
When to look
Cicada
Good to know
Six things about the cicada
A drum in its side
The male clicks a ribbed drum in his body in and out hundreds of times a second. His hollow belly makes it louder.
Seven years underground
The young live in the soil for about seven years, sucking sap from tree roots.
An empty brown shell
The grown nymph climbs a trunk, splits down the back and the adult pulls itself out, leaving the skin behind.
Named like sweets and shopkeepers
The same cicada comes in other colours with names of their own: the yellow Monday, the blue moon and the masked devil.
Six weeks in the sun
After all those years below, the adult lives for about six weeks.
The real thing
Photos of the cicada
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Photos are from Wikimedia Commons, used under the free licences shown. They have been resized, and cropped where they appear in link previews.
How to spot one
Listen first: on a hot December day you cannot miss them. Look for the papery brown shells stuck to tree trunks and fence posts.
How to help
Cicadas need trees for every part of their lives. Children in Australia collect the empty shells, which does no harm at all.
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