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Genus Okanagana

An Oregon Cicada - Okanagana oregona - male Cicada - Okanagana cicada - Okanagana Exuviae on Pine-Bush - Okanagana High altitude Cicada - Okanagana cruentifera Okanagana? - Okanagana Okanagana canadensis - Okanagana noveboracensis Okanagana synodica
Classification
Kingdom Animalia (Animals)
Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods)
Class Insecta (Insects)
Order Hemiptera (True Bugs, Cicadas, Hoppers, Aphids and Allies)
Suborder Auchenorrhyncha (True Hoppers)
Infraorder Cicadomorpha (Cicadas, Spittlebugs, Leafhoppers, and Treehoppers)
Superfamily Cicadoidea (Cicadas)
Family Cicadidae (Cicadas)
Subfamily Tibicininae
Tribe Tibicinini
Genus Okanagana
Synonyms and other taxonomic changes
Okanagana Distant, 1905
Explanation of Names
Likely named for the Okanagan region/river (or Native American people) of British Columbia.
Numbers
44 species in our area, 45 in total.
Okanagana annulata Davis, 1935
Okanagana arboraria Wymore, 1934
Okanagana arctostaphylae Van Duzee, 1915
Okanagana aurora Davis, 1936
Okanagana balli Davis, 1919
Okanagana bella Davis, 1919
Okanagana canescens Van Duzee, 1915
Okanagana cruentifera (Uhler, 1892)
Okanagana ferrugomaculata Davis, 1936
Okanagana formosa Davis, 1926
Okanagana fratercula Davis, 1915
Okanagana fumipennis Davis, 1932
Okanagana georgi Heath & Sanborn, 2007
Okanagana gibbera Davis, 1927
Okanagana hirsuta Davis, 1915
Okanagana luteobasalis Davis, 1935
Okanagana magnifica Davis, 1919
Okanagana mariposa Davis, 1915
Okanagana napa Davis, 1919
Okanagana nigrodorsata Davis, 1923
Okanagana noveboracensis (Emmons, 1854)
Okanagana occidentalis (Walker, 1866)
Okanagana opacipennis Davis, 1926
Okanagana oregona Davis, 1916
Okanagana orithyia Bliven, 1964
Okanagana ornata Van Duzee, 1915
Okanagana rhadine Bliven, 1964
Okanagana rimosa (Say, 1830)
Okanagana rubrobasalis Davis, 1926
Okanagana salicicola Bliven, 1964
Okanagana schaefferi Davis, 1915
Okanagana sequoiae Bliven, 1964
Okanagana sperata Van Duzee, 1935
Okanagana sugdeni Davis, 1938
Okanagana synodica (Say, 1825)
Okanagana tanneri Davis, 1930
Okanagana triangulata Davis, 1915
Okanagana tristis Van Duzee, 1915
Okanagana vandykei Van Duzee, 1915
Okanagana venusta Davis, 1935
Okanagana villosa Davis, 1941
Okanagana vocalis Bliven, 1964
Okanagana wymorei Davis, 1935
Okanagana yakimaensis Davis, 1939
extralimital species
Okanagana aurantiaca Davis, 1917
Size
~20-35mm, a few are a bit smaller. Wing span: ~50-80mm
Identification
Superficially similar to Clidophleps, Neoplatypedia, and Platypedia.
Separated from Platypedia and Neoplatypedia by the position of the costal node at 1/2 the length of the wing, and from Clidophleps by the trapezoidal shape of the radial cell. Can't really be confused with Okanagodes except for O. pallidula, which is not sympatric.
The identification of Okanagana is difficult. In terms of images, the ideal combination for a male is a dorsal and ventral shot, an exposed wing, and dorsal and lateral views of the exposed uncus (hidden normally by the valve). For females: dorsal and ventral shots with a closeup of the female genital plates. Many females aren't identifiable as original descriptions do not include information on the female genitalia.
Songs play a key role in the identification: Individual Okanagana sing at a constant syllable rate at a dominant frequency, and while there are exception, there is generally little intraspecific variation. The two-variable combination of song morphometrics do not overlap within a community, so having a recording and a geographic location (hence community structure) can often allow and otherwise unidentifiable species to be identified. For the purposes of Bugguide, outside links to songs can thus be very useful for ID purposes. Details of songs are slowly being added as they are published. Currently, Chatfield-Taylor and Cole 2019 published the song metrics for 23 taxa and they're being incorporated into the guide.
Range
Okanagana are most speciose in California, but range into the midwest, across Canada, and Okanagana viridis is an allopatric species in the deciduous southeast of OK and TX. One species is found in Baja: O. aurantiaca, but hasn't been recorded in recent history.
Habitat
Highly varied. Some are host plant specific: O. nigriviridis [chamise]; O. opacipennis, O. rubrovenosa, O. arctostaphylae [manzanita]. Others are highly habitat specific: O. villosa [subalpine], O. balli [tallgrass prairie], O. viridis [deciduous forest].
Season
Generally May-August. Can be found as early as April and as late as September in some years.
Life Cycle
Protoperiodical, with an average lifecycle of 2-5 years and emerging in variable numbers.
Remarks
Many species recently transferred to the genera Chlorocanta, Hewlettia, and Tibicinoides in Cole et al. 2023.
O. magnifica, cruentifera, mariposa, and venusta follow a variation on a protoperiodical lifecycle. Their emergence schedule is governed by a cumulative rainfall threshold, emerging only when it has been reached. Other Okanagana follow a typical protoperiodical cycle (2-5 years with variably-sized emergences) that are independent of rainfall.
Print References
Chatfield-Taylor, W. and Cole, J.A. 2019. Noisy neighbors among the selfish herd: mate recognition within cicada emergences mediated by a critical song distance (Hemiptera: Auchenorrhyncha: Cicadidae: Okanagana). Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 128(4):854-864.
Chatfield-Taylor, W. and Cole, J.A. 2017. Living rain gauges: cumulative precipitation explains the emergence schedules of California protoperiodical cicadas. Ecology 98: 2521-2527.
Cole, J.A., Chatfield-Taylor, W., Smeds, E.A., Cooley, J.R., Gonzalez, V.A. & Wong, C. (2023) Phylogeny of North America’s largest cicada radiation redefines Tibicinoides and Okanagana (Hemiptera: Auchenorrhyncha: Cicadidae: Tibicininae). Zootaxa, 5346(5), 501–531. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5346.5.1
Kondratieff BC, Ellingson AR & Leatherman DA. 2002. Insects of Western North America 2. The Cicadas of Colorado (Homoptera: Cicadidae, Tibicinidae). Fort Collins: Department of Bioagricultural Sciences and Pest Management, Colorado State University.
Sanborn AF, Phillips PK. 2013. Biogeography of the cicadas(Hemiptera: Cicadidae) of North America, North of Mexico. Diversity 5: 166–239.
Internet References
Simons JN. 1954. The Cicadas of California. Bulletin of the California Insect Survey 2: 153–192. (PDF)

http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/walker/buzz/c700home.htm (Lots of Davis's original papers describing Okanagana)