Forget A Day on the Green, Wildlands and Laneway – these music festivals have nothing on cicadas, the real sound of summer around Adelaide. Find about more about this loud little insect.
Heard the clicking, creaking, buzzing and scratching in the greenery around Adelaide this summer?
It’s caught our attention, and that of many right around Australia, and even around the world – ‘cos evidently this has been a stellar season for cicadas.
So good, in fact, that 2 new cicada species that we didn’t know were Adelaidians are now on our radar.
Check out our quick and easy tips for finding out which cicadas might be found in your backyard, discover which species call Adelaide home, including 2 newbies, and learn what we’re doing to expand our knowledge on all things cicadas.
But first, what even is a cicada?
Good point, let’s back up a bit!
Cicadas are the loudest insects in the world. Though some species are a tad quieter, many cicadas are known for their calling, clicking, creaking, buzzing and scratching.
When they call it’s either about finding a mate or defending against predators.
Cicadas often call as a group, which makes it hard for a bird looking for a snack to find just the one individual insect.
Many species are also quick to stop calling if approached, which makes it challenging to get close.
Some cicadas are even great at changing how they project their call, to make it sound like they are in a different location to where they actually are!
Cicadas are part of a superfamily called Cicadoidea. There are more than 400 species in Australia. Of these, there are 16 you can find right here in Adelaide, but this number is likely to grow as we learn more about these insects around our city.
Adult cicadas can range from 2 cm to 5 cm in length. They have big eyes, little antennae, 2 pairs of wings, 3 pairs of legs, and quite a sturdy body. They can range in colours and patterns depending on the species.
Cicadas spend a lot of time underground. They spend this time as a nymph, which is a more juvenile stage when they don’t have wings. Once the nymphs reach their full size, they dig their way to the surface during nightfall in late spring or early summer.
They then climb up a grass stem or onto a shrub or tree trunk and shed their skin, emerging with wings. But in this adult form, cicadas don’t live more than a few weeks.
When they mate, the males calling loudly for females, and then the female will lay its eggs on a plant stem. When the eggs hatch, the little wingless nymphs work their way into the ground where they will dig below the surface, feeding on sap from the roots of plants, until they are ready to emerge when they reach adult size.
In Australia, some species will remain underground for 6 to 7 years, which explains why some years you notice cicadas more than others! In places like North America, there are species that spend even longer underground, 13 or 17 years.
Find out which cicadas are in your backyard
If you’ve heard the call of a cicada – the clicking, buzzing, scratching or singing – into the evenings around your yard, we’ve got a simple way for you to find out what species of cicada are there.
The different species make slightly different noises, so it’s actually a handy way that we can identify cicadas. And, for the insects, the different sounds are to ensure that the males (who do the calling) are attracting females of the same species.
Getting help with identifying cicadas around you is easy.
Download the iNaturalist app on your phone.
Any time you hear any noise that sounds vaguely like we’ve described, record it, and upload it to the app, and name it as a ‘cicada’.
Wait until experts have identified your sound to see what species you’ve found.
And, once you’ve recorded around your backyard, why not try to capture the sounds of cicadas at a park near you? Or along the River Torrens / Karrawirra Pari? Or any patches of greenery or large grassy areas around Adelaide.
It all helps in creating a better picture of the insects that live in and around our city! Plus, cicadas are important cos their presence can be a good indicator of the health of patches of habitat around our city.
Which cicadas are in Adelaide?
There are 16 species of cicada in Adelaide, but we don’t know a lot about where they live or if there may even be more species out there.
What we do know is that the presence of these insects is a good indicator of the health of the patches of habitat around our city.
The 16 include:
- Southern ticking ambertail (Yoyetta australicta).
- Murray acacia cicada (Clinosalta adelaida)
- Adelaide firetail (yoyetta aaede)
- Alarm clock squawker (Pauropsalta mneme)
- Mt Lofty Firetail (Yoyetta loftyensis)
- Red scratcher (Popplepsalta rubristrigata)
- Redeye cicada (Psaltoda moerens)
- Flinders squawker (Pauropsalta castanea)
- Smoky buzzer (Myopsalta waterhousei)
- Adelaide black squeaker (Atrapsalta audax)
- Adelaide buzzer (Myopsalta bisonabilis)
- Dune ticker cicada (Physeema labyrinthica)
- Creaking branch cicada (Auscala spinosa)
- Large mallee squawker (Pauropsalta infuscata)
- Slender squawker (Pauropsalta extensa)
- Robust Smoky Buzzer (Myopsalta binotata)
As for our newbies around Adelaide, cicada experts have identified calls in just the last few weeks of the oven squawker (Pauropsalta contigua), and a species yet to be confirmed. Turns out more cicadas than we thought are Adelaidians! With your help recording the insects, we might even turn up a few more locals.
What are we doing to learn more?
Given it is a great year for cicadas, we’re bringing in cicada experts to help learn more about the species in Adelaide.
Insect expert Alex Stolarski from EntoSearch is helping us learn more about cicadas in Adelaide. He and his team are following up on new and important discoveries being made by the community – and helping with the ID of species in your backyard!
If you’re uploading recordings to iNaturalist, and tagging them as cicadas, these cicada experts will be listening to them over the coming months, and will identify the calls as best they can.
Collating this information, alongside the sort of habitat that various species are found in, will help us learn more about the local species diversity and the important habitats that each species relies on. This can help us ensure the right plants and habitats are maintained to support cicadas into the future.
Ready to give cicada hunting a go? Download the iNaturalist app to get started.