I let him go free in my screened porch, and watched until he was comfortable enough to start. He climbed to six feet on the screen and started singing, moving as he sang - two feet to the right, two inches down, two feet back to the left, two inches back to the start, where he turned and fluttered to a stop.

Recorded at a distance of one inch or less, here he is singing on the porch:

Singing Outside

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I am enjoying the challenge of keeping this little guy alive on growth tips from a wild plum tree (he digs right in!) and listening to his soft little song. When held singing in a small bottle, the vibrations are felt easily (maybe as if to "beat the bushes" for a female?)!

Recorded at a distance of one foot or so, here he is singing in the shower:

Singing Indoors

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Melampsalta floridensis

Photographics by Bill Kelley of Inverness in Florida.

 
 
 
 
See and Hear MORE Floridian Cicadas!!

TOO COOL CICADA

now with even more and actually larger friends singing!

 
 

 
Find picture and sound files of
 
Too Cool Cicada

chillin' with his friends!!

 

 
 


 
Please meet Too Cool Cicada          with his matesCool Two                 and She Cool Too

         (body 21 mm - wing 25 mm)               body 22 mm - wing 26 mm)                    (body 23 mm - wing 28 mm)





 
 



Too Cool Cicada was found with his female on dog fennel.  As soon as netted he started "complaining". Even when on the wing in the screen room he was just "too cool" to really start singing.  As I tried to maneuver him to a better place to record, again he started with the complaints.
 

On the following day I could not find Too Cool Cicada anywhere, but the female was easy to spot.  I went out to the same field and found another singer, Cool Two, and his mate,
 
She Cool Too, in a small prickly ash tree.  


When I got the new cicadas home I found the female that was already there now fatally in the mouth of a little native chameleon which had gotten into the porch. 


And Too Cool Cicada had come out of hiding as if to be "too cool" in the face of lizard death.



I put the two males and new female in a butterfly tent with an oak branch.  The new cicadas buzzed about very much excited, but Too Cool Cicada just sat there like it was no big whoop.



Since all were found in a field in full sun I wondered if all were "too cool" in the porch to warm up to singing.  After only a few minutes when I took the tent out to full sun, this is a part of what happened:




 



Too Cool



and his new friend

 Cool Two



getting up close and personal with
 
 She Cool Too






 
 
 




"Diceroprocta Olympusa"

Summer of 1998 on the 30th and 31st of July"





 
 
 
NEW! NEW! NEW! NEW! NEW! NEW! NEW! NEW! NEW! NEW! NEW!



... three males, one female
... bodies about 28 cm and wings about 35 cm ...
prickly ash by juncus flats on Salt River...


 repeated these "Too Much Cool" sounds unceasingly! 





"Diceroprocta Viridifascia"

Summer of 1999 on the 15th of July"



If you like these guys 


then email me -  
 "the Backyard BugDude" 


 
 
 
 
 
 
Glow COOL Cicada!!

CICADA HIEROGLYPHICA HIEROGLYPHICA


 
 

Time to meet Glow Cool Cicadas

The "glow" refers to the translucent abdomen which shows in this photograph when backlighted with laser and white penlights:
 
(This works great up close and in person!)




 
 

Glow Cool Cicada male was found emerging from his shell on Augustine grass beneath a wild plum tree on June 25th, thriving on the shoots of potted Nandina bamboo. 
The female was found in pine-oak forest and lived two days with the male. 

The only sounds I could ever coax out of him are these mild notes of "complaining" to being handled:


Glow Cool complains 




 
 

More Glow Cool Cicadas 

Another male was found emerging from his shell on scrub oak and another female was found on sabal palm by the Crystal river on July 6th. 

These are the songs he used to call to her when caged together:


Cicada Heiroglyphica Heiroglyphica Calls  




Cicada Heiroglyphica Heiroglyphica Crash and Burn Routine  



 
 
 


If you like these guys 


then email me -  
 "the Backyard BugDude" 


The sights and sounds of GLOW COOL CICADAS

                   ... finally added to this site on 1/3/99.






 


 


Only one more family of cicadas live in Florida, 
it is the largest family, 
and it has the greatest of the cicadas . . .  
GRAND COOL TIBICENS!!




See and Hear
GRAND COOL CICADA!!

TIBICENS
 
 


Tibicen Similaris




"Hey!  The markings on this GRAND COOL CICADA make it look 

like a big version of the Diceroprocta cicada.   

Very Similar!!


Let's call it ..."


TIBICEN SIMILARIS!!







 
 



 
 

 

When I stepped out onto my porch, there was this
Grand Cool Cicada 
 just sitting there!




Tibicen Similaris fears for his life!!! 








 
 
 
And then, for the second time in a week

after a fruitless search for emergent Tibicens all summer,
 
there was this Grand Cool Cicada 

just lying there on my driveway Thursday morning!




Tibicen similaris #2 obliging my desire to record

his song to the fullest ... and the beat goes on!


 
 
 



TIBICEN CHLOROMERA!!


And now, almost one year later

after a fruitless search for emergent Tibicens all summer,
 
here is a different Grand Cool Cicada 

just lying there on my driveway Thursday morning!!

What is it about Thursdays?  Thor's Days??



Tibicen chloromera

feeling a little "green" around the gills.




 
 
 


On a sadder note of caution:   I have tolerated the very large webs

of Golden Orb Weaver spiders for most of the summer which lately

have made large aerial webs (10' diameter) to fit their 5" legspans.
  

Well, after spotting the body of a Tibicens caught in a web
 
and being devoured by one of these beauties, the spiders had to go.



 
 
 
If you like this GRAND COOL CICADA!! 


then email me -  
 "the Backyard BugDude" 




 


 




This page was created 7/17/98 and recreated 5/1/03, and updated 5/17/04.


"Petit a petit, l'oiseau fait sont nid."