Cicadidae


Cicadidae, the true cicadas, is one of two families of cicadas, with about 3,400 species in over 520 genera worldwide; it contains most living cicada species, except for the two belonging to its sister taxon, the Tettigarctidae. The classification of this family, of often very similar insects, has undergone many revisions, continuing into the 21st century; for example, many species previously assigned to the type genus Cicada, are now placed in different tribes.

Description

Cicadas are mostly large insects characterized by their membranous wings, triangular-formation of three ocelli on the top of their heads, their short, bristle-like antennae and often producing high-pitched songs. Although other Auchenorrhynchan insects communicate with sounds, the tymbals and resonating chambers, sometimes covered by opercula, are especially efficient mechanisms in the Cicadidae.

Communication

Cicadas are known for the loud airborne sounds that males of most species make to attract mates. One member of this family, Brevisana brevis, the "shrill thorntree cicada", is the loudest insect in the world, able to produce a song that exceeds 100 decibels. Male cicadas can produce four types of acoustic signals: songs, calls, low-amplitude songs, and disturbance sounds. Unlike members of the order Orthoptera, which use stridulation to produce sounds, members of Cicadidae produce sounds using a pair of tymbals. In order to produce sound, each tymbal is pulled inwards by a connected muscle, and the deformation of the stiff membrane produces a 'click.'

Life cycle

Cicadas can be separated into two categories based on their adult emergence pattern. Annual cicadas remain underground as nymphs for two or more years and the population is not locally synchronized in its development, so that some adults mature each year or in most years. Periodical cicadas also have multiple-year life cycles but emerge in synchrony or near synchrony in any one location and are absent as adults in the intervening years; this is thought to be a defence strategy against predation. The best-known periodical cicadas, genus Magicicada, emerge as adults every 13 or 17 years.
Newly emerged cicadas climb up trees and molt into their adult stage, now equipped with wings. Males call to attract females, producing the distinct noisy songs cicadas are known for. Females respond to males with a 'click' made by flicking their wings. Once a male has found a female partner, his call changes to indicate that they are a mating pair.

Classification

Cicadidae is one of two families within the superfamily Cicadoidea. This superfamily is in the suborder Auchenorrhyncha, containing cicadas, hoppers, and relatives, within the order Hemiptera, the true bugs. There are five subfamilies within Cicadidae: Cicadettinae, Cicadinae, Derotettiginae, Tettigomyiinae and Tibicininae.
Subfamily Cicadettinae Buckton, 1890
Subfamily Cicadinae Batsch, 1789
Subfamily Derotettiginae Moulds, 2019
Subfamily Tettigomyiinae Distant, 1905
  • Tribe Hovanini Sanborn, Moulds & Marshall, 2020
  • Tribe Iruanini Boulard, 1983
  • Tribe Malagasiini Moulds & Marshall, 2018
  • Tribe Tettigomyiini Distant, 1905
  • Tribe Ydiellini Boulard, 1973
Subfamily Tibicininae Distant, 1905
The earliest fossils of cicadas more closely related to Cicadidae than to Tettigarctidae date to the Jurassic period. The morphology of well preserved stem-cicadids from mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber from Myanmar suggests that unlike many modern cicadas, they were either silent or only made quiet sounds. The oldest modern cicadids date to the Paleocene. The earliest confirmed member of Cicadinae and one of the oldest Cicadids known from Eurasia is the fossil cicada Eoplatypleura, from the Eocene aged Messel Pit locality of Germany, which is a member of tribe Platypleurini.