An insect that chirps. Cicadas (cicadidae). Appearance of insects

Against cicadas, the use of such insecticides as "Fastak" and "Karate 050 EC" of contact-intestinal action is effective.

After two spraying cycles carried out with a break of 10 days, the pest is completely disappears. Harvest can be harvested 20 days after the last treatment insecticide "Karate 050 EC". The first of the preparations is not accompanied by such restrictions: with the correct use of the indicated doses, it does not have a harmful effect on plants.

The marginal strips of seedlings of winter cereal crops infected with cicadas are usually treated at their concentration from 55 to 145 individuals per square meter area. Finding adult insects is easy.

The principles of pollination in vegetable gardens are the same.

Perform these works in a calm evening. A sprayer is used for processing, a broom cannot be used.

1. You only need to prepare required amount working solution, as it is forbidden to store it.
2. Depending on the pollinated area, in 1 liter of water it is necessary to dissolve the amount of insecticide indicated on the package and filter the resulting solution.
3. Place half of the total indicated volume of water in a large container. Then pour the prepared solution into it and mix well.
4. Finally, add the remaining half of the water to the desired volume while continuing to mix the contents.
5. Rinse the empty container, freed from the drug solution, with water 2 times and add to total mass. Filter it again and pour it into the spray tank.
6. At the end of the work, wash it with a solution of soda ash.

Wash hands thoroughly and change clothes before and after work. During the manipulations, do not touch your face with your hands, especially do not eat or drink.

The effectiveness of this method is undoubtedly very high.

By timely applying in a complex agrotechnical, sanitary and chemical with larvae and adults of cicadas, it is possible to successfully deal with this common pest of field and garden crops. Saving a rich harvest is quite achievable!

In summer, you can hear long, often piercing sounds coming from trees and shrubs. This is sung by male cicadas. Cicadas are the loudest representatives among insects. Their singing is more varied than the chirping of grasshoppers and locusts. And they reproduce sounds with a completely different instrument - eardrums.

Systematics of insects

To which order of insects do cicadas belong? Scientists attributed them to the homoptera proboscis (Homoptera). Homoptera - because all 4 wings are the same or almost the same density. Proboscis - because they have a piercing-sucking proboscis. They feed on plant sap. This order also includes aphids, scale insects and worms.

Characteristics of cicadas

Despite the fact that the cicadas are separated into a separate suborder, they have common signs of insects. So, in representatives of this taxon, the front wings are either transparent or leathery. They fold up like a roof. The body is thick, the wings protrude far beyond the tip of the abdomen. Antennae short, segmented. On a wide head there are 2 compound eyes and three simple ones.

The larvae are tender, with thin covers, therefore they live in shelters. At first they live under the bark of trees, then they fall to the ground and burrow quite deeply. Sometimes a full meter deep. Some representatives protect themselves from predators and desiccation by forming foam around their body.

The length of cicadas is from 2 to 70 mm. Smaller representatives jump perfectly, using the hind jumping limbs for this. In large species, all limbs are walking.

song cicadas

Separated into a separate family. The family is also called "real cicadas". They have a number of common features. The description of song cicadas is as follows: large insects with a thick abdomen, walking legs and well-developed transparent wings. Fore femora thickened, with two or three teeth. All representatives have a remarkable ability to sing loudly. There are about 1500 species in the world of song cicadas. These creatures live mainly in warm climatic zones.

The signs of insects are the same for all representatives of song cicadas. Therefore, remembering one cicada, it is easy to determine the belonging of other species to the same family.

Singing cicadas

Cicadas sing in a variety of ways. The description of the song is individual for each species. The voice may sound like a circular saw or a monotone train signal. Some songs are distinguished by the presence of two parts, different in sound.

Timbal organs that reproduce sound are located on the ventral side of the body. Special plates cover the device. The cymbals themselves consist of three membranes. The outer membrane is connected to powerful muscles. Muscles change the bulge of the membrane to concavity, and vice versa. Muscles attached to the center of the instrument tense up, bending the membrane. Sound is played. Further, the muscles relax, and the membrane takes its previous position. At this stage, the sound may or may not be audible to the human ear. The result is a chirping sound, like playing with the domed lid of a tin can. The remaining membranes (anterior and posterior) resonate with the external or have their own muscles. The back membrane is called the "mirror". It shimmers beautifully in different colors.

Oscillations are made up to 4000 times per second in the presence of sufficient heat. However, a hundred times per second is enough for the cicada to chirp. Large air cavities amplify the sound - they are resonators. The cavities are connected to spiracles for air supply. By the way, only large representatives sing loudly. Smaller ones also sing, but so quietly that they cannot be heard by the human ear. For a long time it was thought that only males sang. In 1959, 19 species of European leafhoppers were studied. It turned out that females also sing. However, sound amplifiers are needed so that a person can hear their sounds.

Some representatives sing so loudly that the human ear cannot stand it. This is excellent protection from predators. Such loud cicadas are common, for example, in the deserts of North America.

The cicada with the longest life cycle lives on the same continent. The larva turns into an adult after 17 years. This is a record among insects. However, not all species of the family have been studied. Perhaps other amazing representatives of song cicadas will open.

Lifestyle

What does a cicada eat? The larvae live underground, where they feed on the juice of young plant roots. They also suck the juice of the underground part of the stem. What does a cicada eat when it grows up? Adult representatives pierce the cell walls of plants with a proboscis and drink juice. After eating insects, the juice continues to stand out. A droplet of nutrient fluid is formed. She freezes in the air. Manna - so called such droplets.

Thus, the habitat of song cicadas is a biotope that has vegetation. Adults like to sing while sitting on trees and bushes. The larvae live in the soil under the same woody plants. Singing cicadas are distributed throughout the world.

Signs that you are hearing a cicada

How to distinguish the singing of a cicada from the sounds of orthoptera? Cicadas usually chirp during the day, especially during the hot afternoon hours. The fact is that singing requires a lot of energy. This energy is provided by solar heat. Only a small number of representatives are awake at dusk. In this case, energy is generated by the work of the muscles that are normally used for flight.

Singing cicadas sit on trees and shrubs, usually taller than human growth. So if the song is heard from above, then, most likely, it is the male who makes the trill.

Life cycle of the song cicada

The female makes a hole in the bark of a fresh young twig of a tree or bush with her ovipositor. Lays eggs in holes. They hatch into larvae. At first, they can remain on the branches and feed on the juices of the aerial part of the plant. But then they necessarily fall to the ground and immediately begin to burrow into the ground, where it is difficult to find them for insect consumers. There is enough moisture underground, it is cool, there is a lot of food. The larvae have digging limbs. Insects are looking for young roots. They pierce the plant covers with a beak-shaped proboscis and suck the juice. So they eat from a year to 17 years, depending on the type of insect. Vegetable juice is not very nutritious, so the development of many representatives is delayed for several years.

In the process of growth, the larvae molt several times. Before the last molt, they come to the surface. They sit on the trunk of the nearest tree. Here the adult emerges from the larva. This is a long, not minute process. After leaving the old skin, the cicada dries its wings for about an hour. An adult lives 1-2 months. Thus the cicada has life cycle c i.e. the pupal stage is absent.

Symbiosis with cicadas

Plant sap is basically a sweet carbohydrate liquid. Cicadas, like all animals, must also receive protein to build their bodies. To do this, they have symbiotic fungi in their bodies. Their colonies supply insects with protein.

Representative of central Russia

Mountain cicada (Cicadetta Montana) - the only representative that lives in middle lane Europe. The rest of the true cicadas live further south. The mountain cicada is smaller than its tropical relatives. The name "mountain" is not entirely successful, because this species lives mainly on the plains.

Studies of a typical representative of Australia

David Young is an Australian research scientist. He is studying the singing of Australian green cicadas (Cyclochila australasias).

This creature, sitting on a tree, begins to sing. After some time, other males living nearby join the "soloist". It makes a whole choir. Usually one insect sings for several seconds or minutes. The invertebrate choir continues to sing for a long time. This is how males attract females.

The singing of a green cicada is perceived as a long loud sound without David Young, choosing an individual sitting alone, recorded the song on a tape recorder. The recording was then analyzed on a computer. It turned out that the cicada's singing is a lot of impulses. Moreover, the right and left tools work in turn. The number of impulses was usually 230 and sometimes reached 4000 per second.

In the process of chirring, song cicadas take a special stance. The male raises the abdomen, while the wings diverge slightly to the sides.

Other representatives of the cycad suborder

In addition to singing representatives, the families of Cicadas, Gorbatki, and Pennitsy belong to cicadas. They all have the same appearance. However, they also have rear jumping limbs.

Cicadas are smaller than true cicadas. Their front wings are dense, leathery. These creatures are very mobile, they fly better than song cicadas. Both larvae and adults live on grassy vegetation.

Humpbacks have figured outgrowths on the pronotum. Most diverse in South America.

Pennitsy are often brightly colored. Their front wings are dense. They jump beautifully, but in danger they fall to the ground, where they are more difficult to notice. The larvae of pennits have a special adaptation from drying out. They form a foamy mass around themselves, for which they got their name.

The larva secretes a special liquid - plant juice undigested by the body. Symbionts that secrete mucin live in the larva. Mucin is added to the secretions. It provides the viscosity of the liquid. The larva froths the juice of plants with mucin, releasing air bubbles from the spiracles into the mass and whipping it with quick movements of the legs. So she ends up in her wet house. Pennitsy cicadas live all over the world. In Madagascar, for example, drops of foam fall from the trees - the discharge of cicadas, as if it were raining.

Attitude of people towards cicadas

Peoples' attitudes towards cicadas vary greatly. So, the Romans really did not like the crackling singing of these insects. The ancient Greeks, on the other hand, respected cicadas, loved to listen to their music and even depicted insects on coins. Cicadas are very popular in Spain. You can always see souvenirs with the image of these creatures on sale.

Nanotechnology

Psaltoda claripennis is a cicada whose wing surface is covered with microscopic needles. Such a surface kills bacteria that get on the wings. Scientists plan to use the discovery to create germicidal materials.

Insects are interesting if you look closely at them. Scientists have yet to study many more species of cicadas and other invertebrates. Many amazing discoveries have been made in science, and we still have to learn new secrets from the life of insects, their structure and behavior. Many arthropods lead a complex lifestyle. Cicadas have an unusual structure, they are champions among insects. Moreover, they are very beautiful. Who saw the mass exit of adult song cicadas from last stage nymph larvae, he obviously will not remain indifferent.

Family Cicadas real (Cicadidae)

cicadas- mostly large insects found in all parts of the world, mainly in hot countries.

Singing cicadas are inhabitants of mostly tropical and generally warm countries. The song cicadas got their name; for their exceptional ability to chirp. Even a small mountain cicada fills the air of our steppe forest plantations and ash forests with a loud chirring, reminiscent of the chirping of grasshoppers.

In the evenings, somewhere in the Crimea, one can hear the incessant, abrupt chirping of an ordinary cicada. In the tropics, cicadas “sing” even louder, their chirping resembles the sound of a circular saw, and in South America and India, the sounds made by cicadas are not inferior in volume and sharpness to the piercing whistle of a steam locomotive.

Only males make sounds, which have a pair of convex plates - cymbals on the underside of the anterior segment of the abdomen.

Up to 500 species of cicadas are known. They live on trees and shrubs and fly quite well. Males chirp or sing mainly during the hottest time of the day; apparently, their singing serves to attract females.

The ancient Greeks greatly appreciated their singing and, as you know, Anacreon wrote an ode in honor of the cicadas. With the help of the proboscis (and the female also the ovipositor), cicadas make injections into various trees and suck out their juices. Often the sap of the trees continues to flow even after the injections of cicadas and, hardening in the air, forms the so-called manna, which is a nutrient.

The singing of cicadas is considered beautiful in many countries (in Indonesia, in France). Not everyone knows that in I. A. Krylov’s fable “Dragonfly and Ant”, the word “dragonfly” is unsuccessfully called a cicada. Dragonflies do not jump (but cicadas have jumping legs), they do not sing (but cicadas sing), etc. - everything that is said in the fable about the dragonfly does not fit it, but approaches the cicada.

The fact is that Krylov used the plot and images of the famous French fabulist La Fontaine (and La Fontaine used the plots of the ancient Greek fables of Aesop).

In the homeland of La Fontaine, the chirping of cicadas and the cicadas themselves are known to everyone, but in the north of Russia, near St. Petersburg, there are practically none. I. A. Krylov was not strong in entomology and translated the word "cigale" (cicada) as "dragonfly".

We do not have a popular name for cicada.

The life of cicadas is long.

Our mountain cicada (the name is unfortunate, since there are many of it in the lowland forests in southern Russia and Ukraine) develops for 2 years, the common cicada - 4 years, and in North America the periodic cicada (Cicada septemdecim) - as much as 17 years!

In Brazil, several species of cicadas are known as dangerous pests coffee tree. Only song cicadas are called "cicadas", representatives of the following families are often called by us the common name "cicadas", since the species of our fauna are of small size, usually a few millimeters.

Cicadas lay their eggs under the bark or skin of plants. The larvae are distinguished by a thick, clumsy body, smooth and hard skin, and thick legs with one-segmented tarsi; forelegs with wide femora and shins covered with spikes (digging limb type).

Young larvae first suck the branches of plants, and then live in the ground, where they suck the roots of plants. The larvae live for several years, although the duration of larval life is unknown for most species. The larvae receive, after numerous molts, the rudiments of wings and pass into the stage of pamers or pupae, which are found on trees.

The central genus of the family - Cicada - is distinguished by large eyes and a wide head; pronotum usually narrower than head; forewings partly leathery and transparent, partly parchment-like at the root; tarsi mostly 3-segmented, rarely 2-segmented; this genus includes numerous and large species living mainly in the tropics.

There are 18 species found in Europe. The following species are best known: Cicadidae orni, attributed to the genus Tettigia in the latest taxonomy, yellowish above with black; forewings with black spots and yellow outer edge; abdomen with reddish edges; length 28 mm.

Found in medium and southern Europe and occurs predominantly on ash trees, where it causes the formation of manna. The largest of the European species Cicadidae plebeja s. fraxini lives in southern Europe.

Cicadidae montana in Europe reaches the latitude of St. Petersburg and was found in its environs on spruce. Cicadidae mannifera, found in Brazil, delivers Brazilian manna.

Cicadidae septemdecim, living in North America, is remarkable in that the period of development lasts approximately 17 years, as a result of which the insect appears in large numbers every 17 years; compared with most insects, this period of development seems to be extremely long.
According to Rayleigh, this cicada molts more than once a year, so it has 25 to 30 larval stages. The Indians roast and eat this cicada.

Description signs

The cicada family is characterized by the following features. The head is short, the eyes are very protruding; on the crown there are 3 simple eyes forming a triangle; short bristle-shaped antennae composed of 7 segments; the mouthparts consist of a 3-segmented proboscis.

The fore wings are longer than the hind wings, the wings are mostly transparent, sometimes brightly colored or black; the thighs of the middle pair of legs are short and wide; fore femora thickened, with spines below; legs are cylindrical.

The abdomen is usually quite thick and ends in females with an ovipositor, in males with a copulatory apparatus. Extremely characteristic is the presence of a special vocal apparatus in males, arranged as follows.

The apparatus is placed on the underside of the metathorax, behind the hind legs, under 2 large semicircular scales; it consists of a median and 2 lateral cavities. At the bottom of the middle cavity there are 2 pairs of membranes, of which the 2 anterior membranes are called fold membranes (because of the folds), and the 2 back membranes are called mirrors, since they are shiny and smooth.

The lateral cavities have an opening on the side that leads to the surface of the body. The tympanic membrane is inserted into the inner wall of these cavities, to which a muscle is attached, causing the membrane to vibrate.

The middle cavities serve as resonators. Females have a vestigial vocal apparatus, so they cannot sing.

The word "cicada" is familiar, of course, to everyone. It is it that pops up in the memory of most people with the sounds made by any chirping insects, and the cicada itself is considered to be some kind of close relative of grasshoppers or crickets. At least, this is how things are with us, in the middle lane. Actually…

In fact, the cicada and the grasshopper, if they can be considered relatives, are very, very distant.

I first met cicadas in my early childhood, leafing through the book “Guide to Insects of the European Part of the USSR”, then I saw them a couple of times in the Crimea in the 90s, but I happened to come across them closely only in the summer of 2014.

I had to walk a lot along the shores of the Black Sea, where in the middle of July the air is filled with the endless chirring of thousands of cicadas coming from all directions. But these insects like to sit on tree branches at a height higher than human height, and the protective coloration often allows them to go unnoticed, even being in the center of the observer's field of view.

Complete with protective coloration, cicadas are extremely wary and agile, rarely allowing themselves to get closer than a meter. But when all the trees in a low-growing coastal forest are literally teeming with these insects, the task of finding and catching them becomes a simple matter. And here, finally, having examined the cicadas up close and holding them in my hands, I was impressed, which I share.

Common Cicada (Lyristes plebejus)

The common cicada belongs to the song cicada family, which includes about 2500 species.

• Type: arthropods
• Class: Insects
• Squad: Hemiptera
• Suborder: cycads
• Infrasquad: Cicadomorpha
• Superfamily: Cicadoidea
• Family: song cicadas
• Genus: Lyristes
• View: Lyristesplebejus)

Appearance

The common cicada is a large insect. Body length 30-36 mm, with wings 40-50 mm. Head wider than pronotum. There are two large compound eyes on the sides of the head, and three small simple eyes in the center.

Common cicada: general view

The photo clearly shows red dots, which could be mistaken for sucking ticks, if not for their correct location.

The proboscis is long, reaching the posterior margin of the mesothorax. Together with a striped shield resembling a visor, it looks very intimidating.

Common cicada: bottom view

Males have a complex song organ.

The coloration is black, the head and pronotum are with a yellow pattern. The wings are transparent.

Common cicada: side view

The first time I grabbed a cicada, I was surprised that it feels much tougher to the touch than it looks. Wings, unlike fly wings, are so dense that at first it seems that they can be cut.

Distribution area

The common cicada lives in the Mediterranean, in the Crimea, in the Caucasus and in Transcaucasia. In Crimea, the species lives in the mountainous zone on the southern coast of the peninsula, but is absent in the steppes and has almost disappeared in the foothills. It lives mainly on trees and shrubs.

Life cycle

The female cicada lays her eggs in plant stems. The larva spends in the ground from 2 to 4 years, the adult cicada lives for about 1 month. But about the larvae separately.

cicada larva

Finally, the cicada forest presented another gift: the shed shell of a cicada larva. The monstrous claws, reminiscent of those of the praying mantis, inspire respect.

At first, there was a crazy assumption that the larva was a predator. But, no, it turned out that she was simply equipped with a serious tool for digging.

Young larvae feed on the stems of plants, while the grown ones burrow into the ground and move to the roots. The larvae live for several years (depending on the species), up to 17. After many molts, the rudiments of wings appear in the larvae, and with the last molt, which usually occurs on a tree, a cicada is born (the process is approximately the same).

Nutrition

As mentioned above, cicadas at all stages of life feed on plant sap, which they extract by making punctures in stems or roots (the latter refers to larvae). In this case, serious harm is not applied to the plant.

However, harm is caused by females during the period of laying eggs, which are introduced under the bark or skin of plants, violating their integrity. In this regard, cicadas are agricultural pests (in particular, grapes suffer).

How cicadas chirp

In the vast majority of species of cicadas, only males chirp, for which they have a complex vocal apparatus on the back of their abdomen, consisting of a membrane driven by special muscles. Next to the membrane is a resonator cavity, so that the sound can reach a very noticeable volume. The process is well illustrated by the following video.

This is a very simplified description, in fact, the cicada's voice apparatus is a very complex device, which is very well described in the book. Jean-Henri Fabre Life of Insects. Entomologist's stories». The main purpose of singing is to attract a female.

• I will draw your attention to the mentioned book, which I stumbled upon by chance, in the process of searching for information about cicadas. If your interest in entomology extends beyond this article, I highly recommend reading it.

In literature

It is interesting that Krylov's well-known fable "The Dragonfly and the Ant" is a free translation of La Fontaine's fable "The Cicada and the Ant". I think that the point is not in ignorance of entomology, but in the fact that the fabulist deliberately adapted the text for the inhabitants of the middle and northern latitudes. And, really: have you ever seen a dragonfly jump or sing?