Monday 30 November 2009

Brown leaf cicada

As I type this, the cicadas are singing in the rainforest surrounding the house. Their song isn't complex — it's one note — but it is produced with gusto. A single cicada is loud. A forest full of them is deafening.

The noisiest choristers are northern greengrocers (Cyclochila virens), a robust and handsome species found in the Wet Tropics. (A southern greengrocer (C. australasiae) visited Boobook the other day and posed for some photos.)

Last night, this brown leaf cicada (Lembeja vitticollis) settled on my living room window. Like the northern greengrocer, this species is also restricted to rainforests of the Wet Tropics, where it lives in the canopy. The forewings resemble dead leaves, the veins embroidered with black stitches that highlight theor lines. These cicadas are almost impossible to see in the forest, so it is fortunate that they like to come to lights.