Mountain cicada
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| Mountain cicada | ||||||||||||
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Cicadetta montana |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Cicadetta montana | ||||||||||||
| ( Scopoli , 1772) |
The Bergsingzikade ( Cicadetta montana ) belongs to the family of leafhoppers (Cicadidae) within the order of Risso cicadas (Cicadomorpha).
distribution
The mountain cicada occurs in Central Europe, in Germany south of the low mountain range.
It inhabits sunlit slopes, clearings and dry grassy grass with bushes.
anatomy
The adults ( imagos ) reach a size 23 to 28 millimeters, have a black head and a thorax with mostly dark variable patterns and abdomen with abdominal segments orange are boxed. The Tympanalorgane are viewed from the top free, the opercula are very small. In addition to complex eyes ( compound eyes ), the mountain cicada has three point eyes (ocelles) arranged in a triangle . The wings are glass-like (hyaline) and put together like a roof. The fore leg of the mountain cicada has three thorns, the last of which is angled forward.
However, the mountain cicada of Cicadetta cantilatrix and Cicadetta brevipennis cannot be differentiated according to body characteristics, they can only be differentiated bioacoustically .
Life cycle, reproduction and development
The mountain cicada can be found from May or mid-June to mid-July or August. With the help of a system of elastic membranes, the so-called tympanic organs , which are made to vibrate, the male mountain cicadas emit very high-frequency chirping tones that older people cannot perceive. The females can answer the males' calls with snarling noises. The hearing organs of the mountain cicada are located in the abdomen. The males perform the song during the warm hours of the day. The females lay their eggs on bushes with their ovipositor. The hatched larvae fall to the ground and then live underground. They suck the sap of the plant and live in hollows that they solidify with anal secretions. In order to be able to move around better underground, their front legs have been converted into grave legs. The hemimetabolic insects pass through separate larval stages by moulting, during which they gradually become more and more similar to the adult animal. They become gradually larger and larger and with increasing age, the systems for the wings and genital fittings increase. After at least two years of development in favorable weather, usually between May and mid-June, they leave the ground through a loophole and look for suitable places in the vegetation in the vicinity . There they molt one last time to become a full insect. The newly hatched adult animals ( Imagines ) are initially soft and whitish. You need about three to four days until they are completely colored and the chitin shell is completely hardened.
nutrition
Like all singing cicadas , the mountain singing cicada is also a xylem sucker . With the help of her trunk, the adult insects pierce the pathways of various shrubs and herbaceous plants never - sweet and sour grasses - and suck in nutrient salts and water rich ( water ) plant juice. The underground larvae suck the sap from the plant roots.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Cicadas of the raised bogs in the Weser-Ems area | Cicadetta montana (website of the University of Oldenburg), accessed on September 2, 2018
- ↑ a b c Axel Steiner: Mountain Cicada (Cicadetta montana) - www.natur-in-nrw.de. August 15, 2010, accessed June 13, 2019 .