Thopha saccata, the double drummer, is the largest Australian species of cicada and reputedly the loudest insect in the world. Documented by the Danish zoologist Johan Christian Fabricius in 1803, it was the first described and named cicada native to Australia. Its common name comes from the large dark red-brown sac-like pockets that the adult male has on each side of its abdomen—the "double drums"—that are used to amplify the sound it produces.
Broad-headed compared with other cicadas, the double drummer is mostly brown with a black pattern across the back of its thorax, and has red-brown and black underparts. The sexes are similar in appearance, though the female lacks the male's tymbals and sac-like covers. Found in sclerophyll forest in Queensland and New South Wales, adult double drummers generally perch high in the branches of large eucalypts. They emerge from the ground where they have spent several years as nymphs from November until March, and live for another four to five weeks. They appear in great numbers in some years, yet are absent in others.
Taxonomy
Danish naturalist Johan Christian Fabricius described the double drummer as Tettigonia saccata in 1803,[1] the first description of an Australian cicada.[2] The type locality was inexplicably and incorrectly recorded as China.[3] It was placed in the new genusThopha by French entomologists Charles Jean-Baptiste Amyot and Jean Guillaume Audinet-Serville in their 1843 work Histoire naturelle des insectes Hemipteres ("Natural History of Hemiptera Insects"). The generic name is derived from thoph (Hebrew: תּוֹף), meaning "drum". They maintained it as native to China.[4] The specific name is derived from the Latinsaccus, meaning "sac" or "bag", and more specifically "moneybag".[5]
Face on, showing small red ocelli and eyes– southeast QueenslandFemale T. saccata on carpet
The adult double drummer is the largest Australian species of cicada, the male and female averaging 4.75 and 5.12cm (1.87 and 2.02in) long respectively. The thorax is 2cm (0.79in) in diameter,[11] its sides distended when compared with the thorax of other Australian cicadas.[12] The forewings are 5–6.6cm (2.0–2.6in) long. The largest collected specimen has a wingspan of 15.1cm (5.9in),[2] while the average is 13.3cm (5.2in).[13] The average mass is 4.0g (0.14oz).[13] The sexes have similar markings, but males have large dark red-brown sac-like structures on each side of their abdomens.[11][14] These cover the tymbals—specialised structures composed of vertical ribs and a tymbal plate, which is buckled to produce the cicada's song.[15] The head is much broader than that of other cicadas, and is broader than the pronotum behind it. The head, antennae and postclypeus are black,[14] with a narrow broken pale brown transverse band across the vertex just behind the ocelli.[11] The eyes are black in young adult cicadas upon emerging, but turn brown with black pseudopupils at the posterior edge of the eye.[14] The ocelli are deep red.[11] The proboscis is 1.26cm (0.50in) in length—very long compared with other Australian cicada species.[13] The thorax is brown, becoming paler in older individuals.[14] The pronotum is rusty brown with black anterior borders, while the mesonotum is a little paler with prominent black markings,[11] with paired cone-shaped spots with bases towards the front on either side of a median stripe;[10] lateral to these spots are a pair of markings resembling a "7" on the right hand side of the mesonotum and its reverse on the left.[11] The abdomen is black between the tymbal covers and red-brown and black more posteriorly. The underparts of the double drummer are red-brown and black,[14] and covered in fine silvery velvety hairs.[11] The female's ovipositor is very long, measuring 1.76cm (0.69in).[13] The wings are vitreous (transparent) with light brown veins. The legs are dark brown and have grey velvety hairs.[11]
There is little variation in colour over its range, though occasional females are darker overall than average, with markings less prominent or absent.[11] The double drummer is larger and darker overall than the northern double drummer (T.sessiliba);[11] the latter has a white band on the abdomen, while the former has black markings on the leading edge (costa) of the forewing extending past the basal cell.[14]
Male cicadas make a noise to attract females, which has been described as "the sound of summer".[16] The song of the double drummer is extremely loud—reportedly the loudest sound of any insect[17]—and can reach an earsplitting volume in excess of 120dB if there are large numbers of double drummers at close range.[14][18] Monotonous and dronelike, the song is said to resemble high-pitched bagpipes.[19] The sound of the buckling of the tymbal plate then resonates in an adjacent hollow chamber in the abdomen, as well as in the exterior air-filled sacs, which act as Helmholtz resonators.[20]
Singing can cease and restart suddenly, either rarely or frequently, and often ends abruptly.[14] The song has been described as "Tar-ran-tar-rar-tar-ran-tar-rar",[21] and consists of a series of pulses emitted at a rate of 240–250 a second. The tymbal covers are much larger than other species and also make the call louder and send it in a particular direction. There are two distinct phases of song, which the double drummer switches between at irregular intervals. One phase is a continuous call that can last for several minutes; during this period the frequency varies between 5.5 and 6.2kHz and 6.0–7.5kHz 4–6 times a second. In the other phase, the song is interrupted by breaks of increasing frequency resulting in a staccato sound. These breaks can be mistaken for silence as the difference in volume is so great, though the song actually continues at a much lower volume. During this staccato phase, which lasts for several seconds, the frequency remains around 5.75–6.5kHz. The frequency of the song is a high harmonic of the pulse repetition frequency, which makes for a particularly ringing sound.[22] Double drummers congregate in groups to amplify their calls, which likely drives off potential bird predators.[23] Male double drummers also emit a distress call—a sharp fragmented irregular noise—upon being seized by a predator.[12][23]
Life cycle
Pair of mating double drummers, Southeast Queensland
The narrow spindle-shaped eggs are laid in a series of slits cut by the mother's ovipositor in branches or twigs, usually of eucalypts.[24] On average about twelve eggs are laid in each slit, for a total of several hundred. These cuts can cause significant damage to the bark of tender trees.[16] The eggs all hatch around 70 days later—usually within a day or two of one another—but take longer in cold or dry conditions.[24] The larvae then fall to the ground and burrow into the soil.[25] Though the timing of the double drummer's life cycle is unknown,[26]nymphs of cicadas in general then spend from four to six years underground.[27] Unusual for Australian cicadas, double drummers emerge during the daytime.[2] Emerging en masse generally, nymphs are covered in mud. This mud remains on their exuviae,[28] which emerging cicadas leave at the bases or in burnt out hollows of eucalypts. Within a forest, successive broods may emerge in different locations each year.[26] The cicada's body and wings desiccate and harden once free of the exuvia.[12]
The adult lifespan of the double drummer is about four or five weeks.[29][30] During this time, they mate and reproduce, and feed exclusively on sap of living trees, sucking it out through specialised mouthparts.[31] Female cicadas die after laying their eggs.[12]
The double drummer has a disjunct distribution, found from northern tropical Queensland, near Shiptons Flat and Cooktown south to Ingham and Sarina, and then from Gympie in southeastern Queensland to Moruya in southern New South Wales.[14] It is found in areas of higher elevation in the northern segment of its range, as the climate there is similar to that in southeast Queensland.[11]Walter Wilson Froggatt and Robert John Tillyard erroneously included South Australia in its distribution.[32][33]
Female T. saccata (behind, left) male (front, right)
Adults are present from November to early March, prolific in some years and absent in others. They are found in dry sclerophyll forest, preferring to alight and feed on large eucalypts[13][14] with diameters over 20cm (7.9in) and sparse foliage concentrated at a height between 10 and 25m (33 and 82ft),[13] particularly rough-barked species,[10] apples (Angophora) and Tristania.[11] Associated trees include the grey box (Eucalyptus moluccana), snappy gum (E. racemosa) and narrow-leaved apple (Angophora bakeri) in a study at three sites in western Sydney.[34] At Hawks Nest in coastal swampy sclerophyll woodland, adults were observed mainly on swamp mahogany (Eucalyptus robusta) and sometimes blackbutt (E. pilularis), as well as Allocasuarina littoralis and introduced pine (Pinus radiata).[33] Nymphs feed primarily on the roots of eucalypts.[35]
The double drummer has not adapted well to city life; distribution of the species in cities is limited to natural stands of large trees.[2]
Behaviour
In hotter weather, double drummers perch on the upper branches of trees, while on overcast or rainy days, they may be found lower down on trunks near the ground.[11] Double drummers on tree trunks are skittish, and can fly off en masse if disturbed.[26] Relative to other Australian cicadas they have excellent perception, fly at a moderate cruising speed of 2.5m/s (8.2ft/s), with a similarly moderate maximum speed of 4.0m/s (13ft/s), and are exceptionally adept at landing.[13] The double drummer has been known to fly out to sea, effectively on a one-way trip as their bodies have later been found washed up on beaches. A swarm of double drummers were reported 8km (5.0mi) off the coast of Sussex Inlet in January 1979, in and around the boat of a local fisherman.[14]
Predation
As the adult cicadas emerge in the daytime, large numbers are consumed by birds.[36]Thopha cicadas have also been found in the stomachs of foxes.[37] The double drummer is one of the large cicada species preyed on by the cicada killer wasp (Exeirus lateritius),[36] which stings and paralyses cicadas high in the trees. Their victims drop to the ground where the cicada-hunter mounts and carries them, pushing with its hind legs, sometimes over a distance of 100m (330ft). They are then shoved into the hunter's burrow, where the helpless cicada is placed on a shelf in an often extensive "catacomb", to form food-stock for the wasp grub growing from the eggs deposited within.[38]
Interactions with humans
This illustration of Thopha saccata appeared in the 1885 Elementary Text-book of Entomology by William Forsell Kirby.
Schoolchildren climb trees to collect live cicadas and keep them as pets in shoeboxes. However, they cannot easily be kept for longer than a day or two, given that they need flowing sap for food.[18] Live adults brought into classrooms by their captors would startle the class with their piercing sound.[39] Poems dedicated to the double drummer appeared in the Catholic Press in 1933 and 1936, describing bird predation and its life cycle to children.[40][41]
The cicadas are a superfamily, the Cicadoidea, of insects in the order Hemiptera. They are in the suborder Auchenorrhyncha, along with smaller jumping bugs such as leafhoppers and froghoppers. The superfamily is divided into two families, the Tettigarctidae, with two species in Australia, and the Cicadidae, with more than 3,000 species described from around the world; many species remain undescribed. Nearly all of cicada species are annual cicadas with the exception of the few North American periodical cicada species, genus Magicicada, which in a given region emerge en masse every 13 or 17 years.
Cicadidae, the true cicadas, is one of two families of cicadas, containing almost all living cicada species with more than 3,200 species worldwide.
Cicadas of the genus Neotibicen are large-bodied insects of the family Cicadidae that appear in summer or early fall in eastern North America and formerly Bermuda. Common names include cicada, harvestfly, jar fly, and the misnomer locust.
The Cicadinae are a subfamily of cicadas, containing the translucent cicadas. They are robust cicadas and many have gaudy colors, but they generally lack the butterfly-like opaque wing markings found in many species of the related Tibiceninae.
Tosenini is a tribe of cicadas in the family Cicadidae. There are at least 10 described species in Tosenini, found in the Palearctic and Indomalaya.
Psaltoda moerens, commonly known as the redeye, is an Australian species of cicada. It is distributed through the south-east of Australia, from southern Queensland to South Australia, as well as Tasmania. Populations can vary greatly between years; one year they may be present in large numbers and the next they may be entirely absent. They feed primarily on eucalyptus but also on Angophora trees. As they feed on tree sap they expel small droplets of clear waste fluid. When numbers are high, this can form a constant stream.
Cyclochila australasiae is a species of cicada and one of Australia's most familiar insects. It is distributed through coastal regions of southeastern Australia. Green specimens are commonly known as green grocers and yellow ones as yellow mondays.
Aleeta is a genus of cicadas with the only species Aleeta curvicosta, one of Australia's most familiar insects. Native to the continent's eastern coastline, it was described in 1834 by Ernst Friedrich Germar.
Psaltoda plaga is a species of cicada native to eastern Australia, from Maryborough in central Queensland to Bega in southern New South Wales. Adult cicadas appear over the summer and inhabit forested areas near bodies of water. The predominantly black form from the Sydney and Central Coast regions is commonly known as the black prince, while the term silver knight is used for the species as a whole.
Arunta perulata is a large cicada native to Australia. It is also known as the white drummer cicada. The name floury baker was previously applied to this species, but that name is now specific to Aleeta curvicosta.
Thopha is a genus of cicada native to Australia. Five species are recognised, the double drummer, the northern double drummer, the golden drummer, T. emmotti and T. hutchinsoni. Within sessiliba, two subspecies are recognized, the nominotypical form and T. sessiliba clamoris Moulds and Hill.
Henicopsaltria eydouxii, commonly known as the razor grinder, is a large species of cicada native to eastern Australia. Predominantly brown in colour, it is found in dry and wet sclerophyll forest in December and January and is quite common in Brisbane.
Thopha sessiliba, commonly known as the northern double drummer, is an Australian cicada native to Queensland, the Northern Territory and northern Western Australia. Adults perch almost exclusively on ghost gums.
Thopha colorata, commonly known as the golden drummer, is an Australian cicada native to Central Australia. Adult cicadas alight exclusively on river red gums. The nymph is 18–20 millimetres (0.71–0.79 in) long and is a dull brown colour.
Macrotristria angularis, commonly known as the cherrynose, is an Australian cicada native to eastern Australia, where it is found in sclerophyll forests.
Cicadettini is a tribe of cicadas in the family Cicadidae. There are at least 110 genera and 520 described species in Cicadettini, found worldwide except for the Neotropics.
Thophini is a tribe of cicadas in the family Cicadidae, found in Australia. There are at least two genera and about nine described species in Thophini.
Dundubia is a genus of cicadas in the subfamily Cicadinae and the type genus of the tribe Dundubiini.
Dundubia vaginata is the type species in its genus, sometimes called the jade-green cicada in the tribe Dundubiini.
↑ Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts (19 July 2012). "Species Thopha saccata (Fabricius, 1803)". Australian Faunal Directory. Commonwealth of Australia. Archived from the original on 2 December 2013. Retrieved 8 August 2013.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
↑ Amyot, Charles Jean-Baptiste; Audinet-Serville, Jean Guillaume (1843). Histoire naturelle des insectes Hemipteres (in French). Paris, France: Librairie encyclopédique de Roret. p.471.
↑ Simpson, D.P. (1979). Cassell's Latin Dictionary (5ed.). London, United Kingdom: Cassell Ltd. p.528. ISBN0-304-52257-0.
↑ Guérin-Méneville, Félix Édouard (1838). "Voyage de la Favorite". Magasin de Zoologie (in French). 9: 80.
↑ Moulds, Maxwell Sydney (2001). "A Review of the Tribe Thophini Distant (Hemiptera: Cicadoidea: Cicadidae) with the Description of a New Species of Thopha Amyot Serville". Insect Systematics and Evolution. 32 (2): 195–203. doi:10.1163/187631201X00155. ISSN1399-560X.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 MacNally, Ralph C.; Doolan, Jane M. (1986). "Patterns of Morphology and Behaviour in a Cicada Guild: A Neutral Model Analysis". Austral Ecology. 11 (3): 279–94. doi:10.1111/j.1442-9993.1986.tb01398.x.
1 2 Wondjina (28 December 1946). "The Cicada Sings for Love". Sydney Morning Herald. Sydney: National Library of Australia. p.10. Retrieved 20 August 2013.
↑ Brunet, Bert (2000). Australian Insects: A Natural History. Chatswood, New South Wales: Reed New Holland. p.205. ISBN1-876334-43-6.
1 2 Craig, Owen (17 February 2001). "Summer of Singing Cicadas". ABC Science – Environment and Nature. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 15 August 2013.
↑ Monteith, Geoff; Burwell, C.; Lambkin, C (2011). "Cicadas – Our Summer Singers Fact Sheet"(PDF). Queensland Museum Learning. South Brisbane, Queensland: The State of Queensland (Queensland Museum). Retrieved 11 April 2014.
↑ Emery, D.L.; Emery, S.J.; Emery, N.J.; Popple, L.W. (2005). "A Phenological Study of the Cicadas (Hemiptera: Cicadidae) in Western Sydney, New South Wales, with Notes on Plant Associations". Australian Entomologist. 32 (3): 97–110.
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