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Home » Guide » Arthropods (Arthropoda) » Hexapods (Hexapoda) » Insects (Insecta) » True Bugs, Cicadas, Hoppers, Aphids and Allies (Hemiptera) » True Hoppers (Auchenorrhyncha) » Cicadas, Spittlebugs, Leafhoppers, and Treehoppers (Cicadomorpha) » Cicadas (Cicadoidea) » Cicadas (Cicadidae) » Cicadinae » Tacuini » Megatibicen » Northern Dusk Singing Cicada (Megatibicen grossus)
Photo#315585
Northern Dusk Singing Cicada - Megatibicen grossus
Copyright © 2009 Robert Lord Zimlich

Northern Dusk Singing Cicada - Megatibicen grossus
Mobile (Dog River), Mobile County, Alabama, USA
August 4, 2009
Size: 72mm (overall)
This is the largest cicada I've seen. Head width (measured behind those huge eyes) = 18.2mm. Head to tip-of-tail = 72mm. Body length = 39mm. Body width (max) = 22mm. This bug is not in any of my books. Did I mention its size? It really pitched a fit when I tried measuring it. I finally had to put it in a ziplock to take measurements.

Images of this individual: tag all
Northern Dusk Singing Cicada - Megatibicen grossus Northern Dusk Singing Cicada - Megatibicen grossus Northern Dusk Singing Cicada - Megatibicen grossus Northern Dusk Singing Cicada - Megatibicen grossus
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Contributed by Robert Lord Zimlich on 5 August, 2009 - 9:02am
Last updated 30 September, 2012 - 7:43am

Moved
Moved from Tibicen resonans.
… Robert Lord Zimlich, 11 August, 2009 - 9:35am login or register to post comments

Tibicen auletes (NOT T. resonans)
Although T. auletes and T. resonans are sister species with several overlapping characters including similar sounding songs, they are very different - and T. auletes is by far the largest of all North American Tibicen species.

NOTE: T. auletes is typically pea-green to olive-drab (rare red morphs can occur), however, it is the pruinosity, white powdered appearance, and heavy greyish-white frosting across the thorax and heavy white banding of the abdomen that is absolutely characteristic of this species (T. auletes) and no other in the continental US!

With regards "to the mm measurements", there is tremendous variability in size from individual to individual within all taxa, and exact measurements are good guidelines, but not absolute for id.

Please refer and compare the images here with both T. resonans & those on the T. auletes node - these images are absolutely congruent with the many others under T. auletes.
… Bill Reynolds, 7 August, 2009 - 2:33pm login or register to post comments

Moved
Moved from Cicadas.
… Robert Lord Zimlich, 5 August, 2009 - 4:14pm login or register to post comments

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