CLASSIFICATION OF CICADA
KINGDOM :- ANIMALIA (Multicellular eukaryotic organisms)
PHYLUM :- ARTHROPODA (Jointed appendages.)
CLASS :- INSECTA (3 pairs of legs.)
ORDER :- HEMIPTERA (Metamorphosis gradual.)
FAMILY :- CICADOIDEA
GENUS :- CICADA
GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION
It is found in tropical, sub-tropical and temperate forests. It is specially found in India, Europe and America.
HABIT AND HABITAT
Cicadas are dependent upon trees for food and occur most abundantly in forests and well wooded moist localities
GENERAL CHARACTERSTICS OF CICADA
- Cicada is a large insect with entirely membranous wings and 3 sub-contiguous ocelli and measuring one to several inches.
- Body is divided into head, thorax and abdomen all well developed.
- Head is broad, having 2 lateral well developed compound eyes and 2 short antennae.
- Thorax is composed of prothorax, mesothorax and metathorax.
- Wings are large, often coloured and lie at an angle over the abdomen.
- Abdomen is elongated and 10 segmented and is broadly jointed to thorax.
- Sound production and breeding habits are peculiar.
- Sound is produced by the male only, which has a drum-like apparatus, called as aedeagus. Cicada is capable of producing loud, shrill, vibrating sound, supposed to be sexual call. The sound can be compared to knife-grinder or even a railway whistle.
- Life cycle is completed in 2 to 17 years.
- Nymph burrows in soil, feeds on plants and emerges adult after 2 to 17 years and hence it is often called as ‘seventeen-year locust’.
ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE
The ovipositing females may cause serious damage to the twigs and branches of fruit and hardwood trees.
IDENTIFICATION
The insect has membranous wings and all above features, hence it is Cicada.
