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Sticker of Robust cicada
Bug card No. 1163 of 1,500

Robust cicada

Hyalessa maculaticollis
Eats: PlantsTrue bugs and cicadasGardens and meadows6 legs

The robust cicada is a chunky, egg-shaped cicada from East Asia. It is black with bright blue-green spots, and its big clear wings are larger than its body. In summer the males sing a loud song that sounds like min, min, min, min.

Lives in
China, Japan, Korea and the Russian Far East, in parks, towns and forests
Length
3.3 to 3.6 cm (1.3 to 1.4 in)
Top speed
about 12 km/h (7.5 mph)
Flying, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It is noisy, but it does not bite or sting.
What does it eat?
Like other cicadas, it sucks sap from trees with its straw-like mouth. The young live underground and drink sap from roots.
For real!Photo of Robust cicada
Picture by Alpsdake. CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

Robust cicada about 3.6 cm long (1.4 in)A toy building brick about 3.2 cm (1.3 in)A crayon about 9 cm (3.5 in)A banana about 18 cm (7.1 in)
as long as 6 grains of rice in a rowcould fly across a whole football pitch in 32 secondsmoves 93 times its own body length every second

How big is Robust cicada compared to YOU?

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How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

In Japan it is called minminzemi, which means the minmin cicada, after its song.

2

Cicadas in Korea and China sing a bit differently than in Japan, a little like a cicada accent.

3

Only the males sing.

4

In cold northern Japan it can only live in a few warm places heated by hot springs and volcanoes.

5

Some are almost all blue-green with hardly any black spots.

you asked

Most asked questions about Robust cicada

?What sound does the robust cicada make?

The male sings a loud min, min, min song. In Korea it sounds more like maem, maem, maem.

?Is the robust cicada dangerous?

No. It cannot bite or sting people.

?How big is the robust cicada?

It is about 3.5 centimetres long, with wings that are bigger than its body.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Hyalessa maculaticollis
Group
True bugs and cicadas
Family
Cicadidae
Classification
Insecta > Hemiptera > Cicadidae
Lives on
Asia
Also known as
Minmin cicada

Where the facts come from

  1. Hyalessa maculaticollis (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
  2. Picture by Alpsdake. 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.

More from the same group: True bugs and cicadas

Also at home here: Gardens and meadows