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Photo#145019
Tibicen sp. - Neotibicen linnei

Tibicen sp. - Neotibicen linnei
North Carolina, USA
Size: 2"inches
Sex Unknown.

Images of this individual: tag all
Tibicen sp. - Neotibicen linnei Tibicen sp. - Neotibicen linnei

Tibicen linnei vs. T. pruinosus & other similar Tibicen species
Typically T. linnei has a black face mask (band) that is relatively uninterupted (Your image here exemplifies this character very well).

In contrast, most T. pruinosus & T. winnemana have some interuptions in this mask with green intrusion along the sutures and ocelli "sockets" (three little red eyes on the top of the head).

Although this feature is often used diagnostically, there are exceptions in both T. pruinosus and T. winnemana in which there is excessive dark pigmentation creating a mask like that seen in T. linnei!! - Also, there are some T. linnei with minor green intrusion above the paired ocelli!!

You must use combinations of key traits when making any identification.

Few rules in biology are without exceptions!

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There is a site listed at the end of this message - please refer to this site for a detailed explanation for species identification and separation.

There is a line bisection test implementing the wing veins as "mappable" characters. This test is used to separate T. linnei from T. pruinosus (and other related Tibicen species). Keep in mind this test was designed using material collected in the upper Midwest; however, this test seems to be challenged when applied to Taxa in the Southeast. I have noticed that while the point of bisection varies in T. pruinosus specimens, it nearly always bisects the cell somewhere across the last third or quarter of the wing cell beyond the junction of the Sc & C (Midwestern conventions suggest no bisection at all). In contrast the line will bisect near or before the junction of the Sc (Sub-costal)& C (Costal) in all T. linnei I have examined from all parts of this species' range.

Please refer to the following site for wing test - scroll down and you'll see diagrams explaining which veins are used.
http://insects.ummz.lsa.umich.edu/fauna/Michigan_Cicadas/Michigan/key.html

Feel free to contact me for additional images of these species to help clarify other traits used in comparisons.

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