Maoricicada cassiope

Maoricicada cassiope Temporal range: Holocene–Present PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N ↓
Screaming cicada singing from Dracophyllum shrub at Korowai / Torlesse Tussocklands Park.
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Hemiptera
Suborder:	Auchenorrhyncha
Family:	Cicadidae
Genus:	Maoricicada
Species:	M. cassiope
Binomial name
Maoricicada cassiope (Hudson, 1891) [1]
Synonyms [2] [3]
Cicada cassiopeHudson, 1891 Cicadetta cassiope(Hudson, 1891) Melampsalta cassiope(Hudson, 1891)

Maoricicada cassiope, also known as the screaming cicada , is a species of insect that is endemic to New Zealand. ^{[4] [2]} This species was first described by George Hudson in 1891. ^{[1] [5]} Maoricicada cassiope can be found in mountainous regions of the North and upper South Island. ^[6]

Classification

Maoricicada cassiope was first scientifically described in 1891 ^[a] by George Vernon Hudson in the Transactions and Proceedings of the New Zealand Institute . Hudson placed it in the genus Cicada but still used the specific epithet cassiope, though he did not record why. ^[7] In 1974 the species, along with several others, was transferred into the recently-erected genus Maoricicada . ^[8]

Distribution

Maoricicada cassiope was first observed on Dun Mountain, near Nelson. ^[9] During the Last Glacial Period, ice covered most of the South Island. It is believed that Maoricicada cassiope remained in refugia in the northern end of the island near Nelson before expanding southwards as the ice retreated. Its present distribution includes subalpine areas in the northern half of the South Island: inland in Marlborough and Tasman, particularly arount Mount Arthur, and down the mountainous spine of the island between Canterbury and Westland as far south as, approximately, the Rakaia River, south of which other Maoricicada species dominate. ^{[3] [10]} However, George Vernon Hudson described the species as being found as far south as Lake Wakatipu in Otago. ^[9] On the North Island, Maoricicada cassiope has been recorded at Mount Ruapehu in Tongariro National Park and the area around it, in an inland area covering the northeastern portion of Manawatū–Whanganui in and around the national park, and south to around Taihape and Mangaweka, though it has also been recorded as far south as the Wairarapa. ^[11] In terms of altitude, M. cassiope is usually found in verdant areas between 910 and 1,400 metres (3,000 and 4,500 feet) above sea level. At lower altitudes, below 1,200 metres (4,000 ft), it is replaced by a variety of variable cicada . ^[12]

• 
  Female specimen
• 
  Male specimen
• 
  Female perched on finger along the Otira Valley Track, Arthur's Pass National Park.

Notes

1. Hudson presented the paper which described the new species on 23 July, 1890 to the Wellington Philosophical Society. The paper was published in May of 1891 in the 1890 volume of the Transactions and Proceedings of the New Zealand Institute. The author citation generally used thus gives the year as 1891.

Citations

1. Larivière, M.-C.; Fletcher, M. J.; Larochelle, A. (2010). "Auchenorrhyncha (Insecta: Hemiptera): catalogue" (PDF). Fauna of New Zealand. 63: 1–232. Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 February 2013. Retrieved 16 December 2018– via Manaaki Whenua - Landcare Research.
2. "Maoricicada cassiope (Hudson, 1891)". Manaaki Whenua - Landcare Research. Retrieved 16 December 2018.
3. "Maoricicada cassiope (Hudson, 1891)". www.gbif.org. Retrieved 11 September 2025.
4. Gordon, Dennis P., ed. (2010). New Zealand inventory of biodiversity: Kingdom animalia: chaetognatha, ecdysozoa, ichnofossils. Vol. 2. p. 403. ISBN   978-1-877257-93-3. OCLC   973607714. OL   25288394M. Wikidata   Q45922947.
5. Dugdale & Fleming 1978, p. 302.
6. "Screaming Cicada (Maoricicada cassiope)". iNaturalist NZ. Retrieved 21 May 2024.
7. Hudson 1891, p. 54.
8. Dugdale, John S. (1971). "New Zealand Cicadidae". New Zealand Journal of Science. 14: 876.
9. Hudson 1950, p. 143.
10. Fleming 1975, p. 303.
11. "Maoricicada cassiope (Hudson, 1891)". www.gbif.org. Retrieved 11 September 2025.
12. Hudson 1950, pp. 138 & 144.

Bibliography

• Dugdale, John S.; Fleming, Charles A. (1978). "New Zealand cicadas of the genus Maoricicada (Homoptera: Tibicinidae)". New Zealand Journal of Zoology. 5 (2): 295–340. doi: 10.1080/03014223.1978.10428319 .
• Fleming, Charles A. (26 April 1975). "Adaptive radiation in New Zealand cicadas". Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society . 119 (3): 298–306. ISBN   978-1-4223-7106-0.
• Hudson, George V. (1950). Fragments of New Zealand Entomology. Lambton Quay: Ferguson & Osborn Ltd.
• Hudson, George V. (May 1891). "On the New Zealand Cicadæ". Transactions and Proceedings of the New Zealand Institute. 23: 49–58.