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Photo#63409
colorful little cicada - Diceroprocta delicata

colorful little cicada - Diceroprocta delicata
World Birding Center HQ at Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park, Hidalgo County, Texas, USA
June 28, 2006
Not very big as cicadas go, but very brightly colored. I saw some comment on here about the orange "M" on the back of the thorax being indicative of Tibicen spp., but this sure seems smaller than most of those...

Moved
Moved from Cicadinae.

Diceroprocta delicata (?)
I have long thought the cicada above to be a Diceroprocta sp. of some sort, and with the new posts (see images below), it looks like D. delicata ;)


Moved
Moved from Diceroprocta.

Diceroprocta sp. (vs. Tibicen spp.)
I have come back and forth to this one (??), and still not 100% satisfied with its placement. I'm still more inclined to go with a Diceroprocta sp. than not (possibly D. delicata??). As referenced below by one of my earlier comments,.. I'm quite certain it is not P. puella. Although this bug does not conform to all of the "typical" Diceroprocta traits either, I still don't think it is one of the smaller "Tibicen spp." (???).

Moved
Moved from Pacarina puella.

Diceroprocta sp.
Compare this image to the other images of Pacarina puella posted here.

Please note the following:
The wings of the other insects pictured have multiple infuscations (dark points in the wings) but all lack the insucation characteried as the cloudy "Z" seen in the wings of this specimen. Although this "Z" trait is absent in many Diceroprocta species, it is characteristic of some species and there are a few in Texas possessing it.

Also note that the eyes of Pacarina are very bulbous and unlike the eyes in the cicada pictured here.

Although I am not certain which Diceroprocta species is pictured here, I'm sure it isn't Pacarina puella.

 
Thanks!
I appreciate the ID Bill; now that the photo is with the right genus, can see if anyone can recognize the species...

Darn.
So this is an exclusively texan cicada? Bummer. I was hoping they were in NC or SC, where there are NO grass-feeding cicadas.

 
almost
It is not *exclusively* Texan; the Info page says that they range west to Arizona, east to Louisiana, north to Oklahoma. But not to the Carolinas, I guess.

Anyway, I am not 100% convinced that the ID on this one is correct. I exchanged e-mails last year with some folks to whom I was referred by UConn cicada specialist Chris Simon; but I lost the messages before I was able to edit the Guide by them, am fairly certain that they came to a different conclusion...

Joshua S. Rose, Ph.D.
Program Specialist
World Birding Center
Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park
http://www.worldbirdingcenter.org/sites/mission/index.phtml
joshua.rose@tpwd.state.tx.us
956-584-9156 x 236

Moved
Moved from Cicadas.

Pacarina puella
You don't say HOW small, but judging by the very short, dark head this must be the common grass-feeding cicada of Texas, which is three-quarters of an inch (2 cm) long.

 
more second thoughts
I just posted another small cicada and am more suspicious of this one now. What bugs me is that the wing veination pattern seems to be distinctly different between the two; I am used to variations in color, pattern, even size within species, but wing veins are usually very constant intraspecifically. Maybe I need to e-mail Dr. Simon again...

BTW, my guess at size of both of these cicadas would probably be closer to 4 mm than 2.

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