Holy cats:
Found this beauty at the tide pool here in Collaroy yesterday. It's
Thopha saccata, the Double Drummer cicada, native only to a sliver of far eastern, primarily coastal New South Wales and Queensland. (Wikipedia page
here.)
They're enormous:
A good deal larger than the cicadas I knew growing up in Buffalo, New York. (Or in
Oregon.)
They're also loud. From
AustralianMuseum.net:One of the loudest of all cicadas, the Double Drummer's high-pitched erratic whine sounds a bit like a bad bagpipe player. When populations are dense, these cicadas are almost unbearable to be near when they sing in unison.
Here's a good article on how cicadas produce their amazing sounds. And a
video. And a
recording.
In this photo, of our cicada's underside, and still on the subject of sound, you can see where the Double Drummer gets its name:
Do you see those reddish-brown sacs on either side of its abdomen? Those are the Double Drummer's "double drums," as it were. They're the two air sacs all cicadas have and use to amplify the sounds they produce, and while all cicadas have them, they are usually not as large and visible as they are on this variety—hence this one's name.
Also in that belly up photo, you can see the cicada's long, black, tubular
mouthparts that it uses to pierce plants in order to feed:
The mouth parts of the cicada are enclosed in a long, thin, beak-like sheath. The sheath (labium) passes backwards from the lower surface of the head between the legs when the insect is not feeding. It contains four fine, needle-like stylets used in feeding.
(Just to note, this cicada appears to have had its butt end eaten off. They normally have a nice pointy end, as seen in the images provided in the links above.)
An interesting note about the Double Drummer, from the
AustralianMuseum.net link above:
The Double Drummer seems to have a tendency to fly out to sea. Thousands of individuals have been reported as far as 8 km offshore. Their bodies are sometimes washed up on beaches.
Which may be why I found this guy in the tide pools.
All in all a beautiful bug:
• Here's a
good ABC article on Australia's many cicada species.
Note: Thanks to commenter honeyheights below for informing me that this is not a Black Prince cicada. Corrections made accordingly.
