Mating Dogday Harvestflies, AKA Annual Cicadas

bugman

August 21st, 2008 at 12:00 am

Categories

Cicadas

Hello
Hi, bugman
8/21/08 My name is Siegrid, live in Washington, NJ (Warren). My mom and I walk path wood in Merrick Creek, NJ. I walk notice saw on path ground, show my mom saw it. That Cicadas mating, I think that brighter green male and dull green dark female, I think sure and get picture. Thank you
Siegrid Werner

Hi Siegrid,
Thank you for sending us this photo of mating Annual Cicadas or Dogday Harvestflies. We would not use coloration as a means of identifying the sexes. We found a website on the Periodical Cicada that has a great explanation on how to differentiate the sexes of Cicadas. In a paragraph entitled Song of Cicadas, Mike Raupp writes: “You can tell the male because he has a blunt abdomen. It’s rounded on the back, blunt abdomen. But if we lift up the wing and look very carefully just beneath the wing, we’ll see an organ called the tymbal organ. That white membrane at the end of my thumb– you can see it vibrating– is how he makes that sound, and it’s only the male that will call.”