Dog-day cicada
The dog-day cicada is a big black cicada with green markings and green veins in its see-through wings. On hot summer days it sings a loud, high whine that sounds like a power saw cutting wood. Then the sound slowly fades away.

How big is it?
How long is it?
How wide are its wings?
How big is Dog-day cicada compared to YOU?
Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.
How fast is it?
Fun facts
Its song lasts several seconds before it fades out at the end.
It comes out every summer, unlike the periodical cicadas that wait many years.
It is also called the heatbug, because you hear it on the hottest days.
Most asked questions about Dog-day cicada
?Why is it called the dog-day cicada?
Because it sings on the hot, sticky dog days of summer.
?How big is the dog-day cicada?
Its body is about 3 centimetres long and its wings can reach about 8 centimetres across.
?Is the dog-day cicada dangerous?
No. It is noisy, but it does not bite or sting.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Neotibicen canicularis
- Group
- True bugs and cicadas
- Family
- Cicadidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Hemiptera > Cicadidae
- Lives on
- North America
- Also known as
- Dog-day harvestfly, Heatbug
Where the facts come from
- Dog-day cicada (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 Rhododendrites. CC BY-SA 4.0, 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.