mall green cicada
Location: Northeastern Louisiana
July 23, 2011 5:27 pm
Dear Bugman,
I uploaded this information to your site in June, but never got a response, so something must have gone wrong with the upload. I found this cicada in my pool skimmer, it was already dead. It was a lime green color and much smaller than the regular annual cicada. It didn’t look like a periodical and didn’t have red eyes. The first image is the day I found it, when it was still brilliant. The second image was a day later and he had faded in color. I found the common the other cicada and used him as a comparison for size. Hope you can shed some light.
Signature: BugBunny
Cotton Green Cicada
Dear BugBunny,
Each year, beginning in May, the amount of mail we receive each day increases to the point that we are not physically capable, with our current staff, of answering even a fraction of the identification requests we receive. We try to post at least five new submissions each day, and we answer considerably more requests that do not get posted to the site. Generally those get just a name and they are emailed directly to the querant. Additionally, this past June, we were on holiday for a week, and during that time, no mail was answered. Our backlog of unanswered requests is truly vast, and we hope you do not take it personally that we never responded to your original request. This identification proved a bit of a challenge for us, but we believe we have the correct answer for you. With North American insects, we often begin trying to identify an unknown species on BugGuide, and we were unable to find any matching images there, however, we did find a Cicada with an intriguing name that was not pictured on BugGuide. The name Okanagana viridis caught our eye because the species name refers to “green” and we learned that the common name is the Cotton Green Cicada. BugGuide lists the range as: “western Mississippi, n. Louisiana, s. Oklahoma, parts o Arkansas and ne. Texas” and the habitat as: “Forested areas along watersheds and edge forests to the Black belt Prairie remnants.“ It flies in June and July and BugGuide also has this comment: “Not Common.“ We then did a web search for that name and we discovered the website Cicadas of the United States and Canada East of the 100th Meridian and scrolling down the page provided this image which looks like a match to your Cicada. The site includes the song of the Cotton Green Cicada and also provides this information: “A bright green, glossy cicada. Song is a continuous, thin buzz lasting around 30 seconds. Calls from very high in deciduous trees. Found in rare lowland forest patches of south-central states.“
Cotton Green Cicada (right) compared to Tibicen species
Thank you so much for the information. Yes I do believe this is it. I didn’t find anything about the size of the cotton green cicada on the BugGuide site. The one I found was much smaller than the common cicada. I have lived here for 60 years and I have never seen one of these cicadas. I am always looking for unusual bugs to share with my family and with all my exploring, this is the first one of these I have found. Thanks again.
¶ Posted 24 July 2011 § ‡ ° Found on front porch
Location: Southern Nevada
July 21, 2011 2:28 am
As I was leaving my Mother in Law’s house, I was attacked by 2 big bugs that were attracted to the light next to the door (I wasn’t attacked as much as I was just in the way). I waited for one to land and it looked like this. My wife thinks it is a cicada, and since I’ve never seen one, I believe her. Just curious. thanks!
Signature: Jay21310
Cicada
Hi Jay,
Your wife is correct. This is indeed a Cicada. We don’t get many Cicada images from the western states, and we thought the pale coloration on this specimen might make it easy to identify to the species level. Interestingly, we found a very entertaining page called Some Cicadas from Las Vegas, NV, and there was a very similar looking photo that was identified as belonging to the genus Diceroprocta. It was the conclusion of the author that the photo on Some Cicadas from Las Vegas, NV, is a lighter form of Diceroprocta apache and this photo on BugGuide tends to support that conclusion.
¶ Posted 21 July 2011 § ‡ ° Big bug, beautiful wings
Location: Grand Rapids, MI
July 13, 2011 2:03 pm
Have found the shells of these the last two years, but this was the first time I actually saw the bug. What is it?
Signature: MI Mom
Newly Metamorphosed Cicada
Dear MI Mom,
This is a newly metamorphosed Cicada, and the shell is the shed exoskeleton of the nymph, known as the exuvia. Upon hatching, tiny Cicada nymphs burrow underground where they remain for several years feeding on fluids from the roots of trees and shrubs. Upon maturing, they dig to the surface and molt for the final time into winged adults.
¶ Posted 14 July 2011 § ‡ ° I linked to you on my blog (again)
July 4, 2011 6:31 pm
Hi, I just wanted to let you know that I linked to your site from my blog, http://mycologista.blogspot.com/ (primarily a wild mushroom blog, but it frequently detours into anything else in the natural world that catches my interest).
I haven’t quite finished it yet (for some reason this post took forever!), but I’m about to. Feel free to chime in in the comments if I got something wrong.
Thanks so much for all the work you do, gathering up all the info and posting it for us to learn about.
Sincerely,
lisa suits
aka, “Mycologista”
Signature: lisa
Brood XIX Cicada from our archive
Hi Lisa,
Sorry for the delay. Thanks to our technical staff, this email which escaped our attention is now a posting on our site. Your documentation of the Brood XIX Thirteen Year Cicadas is awesome. We are also posting something soon that we believe is a mushroom and perhaps you will be able to comment.
¶ Posted 09 July 2011 § ‡ ° A little cicada???
Location: Hinesville, GA
July 7, 2011 9:45 pm
I live in Georgia near Savannah and I’m from Indiana. I’ve been around Cicada’s all my life and I love them. But tonight I heard something hit the house (and it sounded big) but when I looked down this is what I found! I’ve never seen a cicada this tiny! A cicada larvae is bigger than this cicada! Could you please help me identify what type it is?
Signature: Elise Forsythe
Hieroglyphic Cicada
Hi Elise,
There are even smaller Cicadas in the world, and species that inhabit arid environments are often quite tiny. We believe this may be a Hieroglyphic Cicada, Neocicada hieroglyphica based on images posted to BugGuide. The species if found in the South and it feeds on oaks.
Hieroglyphic Cicada
¶ Posted 08 July 2011 § ‡ ° Rainbow Wings
Location: MA
July 3, 2011 6:05 pm
I was wondering what kind of bug the green with rainbow wings was.
Signature: Hollie
Annual Cicada: Exuvia and Imago
Hi Hollie,
You have taken a photo of a newly metamorphosed Annual Cicada in the genus Tibicen, and to the right is the cast off exuvia or exoskeleton that the subterranean nymph left behind after metamorphosing into a winged adult.
¶ Posted 03 July 2011 § ‡ ° Jumping spider feeding on a cicada
Location: cheney kansas
June 29, 2011 11:52 pm
Was mowing one day and saw a cicada drying it’s wings on a Walnut tree.
I returned a couple hours later to check up on the cicada and found a jumping spider feeding on the cicada.
Signature: Chris Harris
Bold Jumper eats Cicada
Hi Chris,
We are very impressed with both your photograph and what it documents. We believe the spider is most likely a Bold Jumper, Phidippus audax, and based on the information on BugGuide, it is a highly variable species, though BugGuide does indicate: “The majority of audax specimens are black with three white spots.” There are also some excellent images and information on this Cirrus Image website. Alas, your photos do not provide a clear dorsal view of the abdomen, so only one white spot is visible. We have so much room to speculate upon how this Bold Jumper managed to capture a Cicada many times its size. We wish you hadn’t cropped the photo. It appears that this might be a newly metamorphosed Cicada. The Cicada is lighter in color when it first metamorphoses. Also, insects are much more vulnerable immediately following molting and the metamorphosis process. The exoskeleton will not have properly hardened immediately after metamorphosis and the Cicada is incapable of flying until after its wings and exoskeleton harden. That would be the window of opportunity for a proficient hunter like the Bold Jumper to tackle a significantly larger prey than it would normally be able to take. Thanks for sending us your photos.
Bold Jumper
5
Howling at the Moon?
Location: Mount Zion, Illinois
June 24, 2011 9:17 pm
Dear Daniel,
My husband found this spider in the basement, and after he’d finished yelling (screaming), he was kind enough to let me take a few pictures. I’ve been through bugguide.net and your website and my field guides, so here’s my question: Is it a wolf spider (genus Pardosa)? Is it a fishing spider (genus Dolomedes)? If it’s a wolf spider, it’s the largest I’ve ever seen…definitely large enough to howl at the moon with the real wolves. 
She was released outside in the woods.
PS – In response to your editor’s note about Brood XIX on the cicada page, they were quite prevalent here. The sound outside was deafening. When they first started emerging, I walked by a small bush that had at least 30 molting within a square foot. Their emergence and subsequent disappearance was quick but amazing!
Thanks!!
Signature: Michelle B
Fishing Spider
Hi Michelle,
This sure looks like a Fishing Spider, probably Dolomedes tenebrosus, to us. We are happy you came to your husband’s rescue and that you relocated this harmless, but frightening looking predator. Thanks so much for your comment on Brood XIX.
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