Chorus cicada
The chorus cicada is the most common cicada in New Zealand and lives nowhere else. In summer the males sing all together, and it can get really loud. It is black, green or brown, often with stripes.
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Fun facts
Cicadas make the loudest sound of any insect.
A group of cicadas can suddenly switch to clicking together by clapping their wings against the branch they sit on.
In summer you can find their empty baby skins stuck to tree trunks.
A grown-up cicada lives for only two to three weeks.
There is a MΔori song and haka about the cicada, called Te Tarakihi.
Most asked questions about Chorus cicada
?Why are chorus cicadas so loud?
The males sing to call the females, and they all sing together. Cicadas make the loudest sound of any insect.
?Do chorus cicadas bite?
No. They are harmless to people.
?How long does a chorus cicada live?
As a grown-up, only about two to three weeks.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Amphipsalta zelandica
- Group
- True bugs and cicadas
- Family
- Cicadidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Hemiptera > Cicadidae
- Lives on
- Australia and Oceania
Where the facts come from
- Amphipsalta zelandica (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Tony Wills. CC BY 2.5, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at hello@bugwiki.app and we will fix it.
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