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There are few insects whose names are often unknown to everyone, but are well-known to everyone because of Chinese textbooks. If I think about it carefully, I'm afraid the only ones are mayflies and cicadas.

“The morning mushroom does not know the new moon and full moon, and the cicada does not know spring and autumn .” More than two thousand years ago, Zhuangzi established the cicada’s popularity through “Xiao Yao You”, which continues to this day.

But did you know that the cicada is actually a type of cicada ?

Cicadas chirping. When chirping, they will slightly open their wings and lift their abdomen to make the sound more audible. Photo taken in Beijing Xiangshan | Wu Xiaoka is a good child

Summer insects cannot talk about ice

"It is difficult to be full in the sky, and the sound is wasted in vain." Since ancient times, Chinese scholars have regarded cicadas as a symbol of purity and innocence, and used them as a carrier of their emotions, mostly praising them and pitying them. However, cicadas seem to be excluded from this "pure" cicada family.

"The city dwellers do not know the seclusion of rivers and lakes, it is like talking about the Spring and Autumn Period with the cicadas." Whenever the cicada is mentioned, it always seems to represent the saying "summer insects cannot talk about ice." This unfair treatment is probably due to the different appearance of the cicadas from other cicadas: most cicadas have transparent gauze-like wings, while the cicada's wings have obvious colors - not gorgeous bright colors, but dark protective colors like tree bark .

The cicada's wings help it blend in with its environment. The cicada Tanna japonensis has transparent wings like most cicadas | Alpsdake & たかはし/ wikimedia

At first glance, such a dull color makes people think that the cicada is just a small moth, not a cicada that "sings sadly and drinks dew from a high place". Zheng Qiao recorded in "Tongzhi": "Zhuangzi said that the cicada does not know spring and autumn, which refers to the small purple and blue ones in April and May." It can be seen that the specificity of the term "cicada" has been relatively clear since ancient times and there is little controversy.

Not the best singer

The Hemiptera-Cicadidae-Ciliophora tribe, to which cicadas belong, is more prosperous in Africa, and there are not many species distributed in East Asia. In China, the cicada tribe includes four genera, including Platypleura, Pycna, Suisha, and Afzeliada, with more than ten species. The cicada we talk about in daily life is a member of the Platypleura genus, and it is also one of the few cicada insects that can be distributed in northern regions .

The cicada cricket is relatively easy to identify, but in central and southern China, it may be confused with the yellow cicada cricket Platypleura hilpa, the cicada cricket Pycna repanda, etc.

The yellow cicada (above) and cicada (below) are similar to cicadas. They are also common in various parts of the south. | Wu Xiaoka is a good child

In China, cicadas are widely distributed: from Liaoning in the north to Hainan in the south, from the Sichuan Basin in the west to the Zhoushan Islands in the east; it can be said that these bark-colored cicadas can be seen in most parts of China. At the same time, cicadas are also one of the few cicadas that are very adaptable to urban environments - even in noisy metropolises such as Beijing and Shanghai, it is not difficult to see them.

In North China, cicadas start chirping in mid-May , and they actually emerge earlier. The further south you go, the earlier this time point is , and of course, the earlier it will end. The chirping of cicadas is relatively monotonous, a relatively single "squeak" sound, without a gentle tune; the tone is higher than that of grasshoppers, but the volume is much smaller, so it is not noisy, but it may give people the illusion of tinnitus.

The inconspicuous fat man

Although the color does not match our inherent impression of cicadas, cicadas still have the standard appearance of Cicadidae: a broad head, thick and muscular thorax , two pairs of wings that can be hung together, six short legs, and a short and compact abdomen. They have a needle-like piercing and sucking mouthparts, which they will pierce into plant branches and suck plant sap for a living.

The forewings of cicadas are significantly longer than their hindwings; the forewings are covered with shadow-like patterns, while the hindwings are uniformly purple-black , but with a transparent edge. The ventral surface of male cicadas has a pair of semicircular abdominal petals, and the inner side of the abdominal petals has a set of tympanic sound organs, which is where male cicadas make sounds; females do not have such a structure.

A specimen of a cicada with its wings spread | Tanja Popp / wikimedia

Cicada crickets are hemimetabolous insects that live underground when they are young (nymphs) and feed on sap from tree roots. In order to adapt to the underground digging life, the front legs of cicada cricket nymphs are very powerful (in the form of digging feet), and the sharp teeth can help them dig in the soil.

The nymphs of cicada crickets are very similar to the smaller version of grasshopper nymphs, but their bodies are more round and compact. Perhaps because of their small size, few people seem to collect cicada nymphs to fry and eat. After about two years, these nymphs reach the mature nymph stage after several moltings, crawl out of the ground, and "shed their shells" on the branches to become adults.

The molt of the cicada looks like a smaller version of a grasshopper, but it is obviously rounder. The nymph has well-developed front legs that can be used to dig in the soil. Photographed in Xiangshan, Beijing | Wu Xiaoka is a good child

Summer insects never stop singing

After emerging from their pupae, cicadas can fly quickly, but they still need to go through a period of maturity before they start chirping to attract mates. Cicadas usually chirp alone on tree trunks. Under the protective color and mottled shadows of the trees, they are difficult to find, and you can often only hear their voices but not see them. However, under street lights at night, cicadas are sometimes attracted by the lights, and then it is easy to find them.

When male cicadas reach maturity, they sometimes gather together to sing together, attracting females from afar with their ensemble voices . However, when female cicadas arrive, these cooperating singers become competitors, squeezing each other out to win their hearts.

A pair of cicadas courting each other. Photographed in Beijing Xiangshan | Wu Xiaoka is a good kid

Although mating will greatly deplete the physical strength of male cicadas, they will not die from pleasure in one go - if they are lucky, male cicadas will mate as much as possible until they die of old age.

After mating, female cicadas will choose a suitable branch to lay eggs. There is a strong needle-shaped ovipositor at the end of their abdomen, which can lay eggs into tough branches. After hatching, the small nymphs will fall from the branches to the ground, burrow into the soil, and start their long childhood without light.

In many cities, cicadas are the first cicadas to start singing in the year. Compared with the nymph stage, their adult lifespan is not too long; by mid-July at the latest, cicadas have basically disappeared in cities in the eastern region. Instead, the noisy and annoying black grasshopper cicada and the melodious Mongolian cicada play together, taking over the singing stage and announcing that the dog days of summer have finally arrived.

In late June, the cicadas begin to die gradually. The fallen bodies will not be wasted, but will become food for various small animals. Photographed in Beijing Xiangshan | Wu Xiaoka is a good child

Cicadas, black cicadas and Mongolian cicadas are very common in cities in the eastern region. Photographed in various places in Beijing | Wu Xiaoka is a good child

And the cicadas, another generation of these little cicadas that seem to be born in the spring when flowers bloom and die in the approaching midsummer, are now hiding their light under the ground, feeling the vibrations brought by your walking, waiting until the flowers are in full bloom in May next year, and then meeting you again in early summer.

Author: Wu Xiaoka is a good kid

This article comes from GuokrNature (ID: GuokrNature)

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