Cicadidae

The earliest fossils of cicadas more closely related to Cicadidae than to Tettigarctidae date to the Jurassic period. The morphology of well preserved stem cicadids from mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber from Myanmar suggests that unlike many modern cicadas, they were either silent or only made quiet sounds.^[2] The oldest modern cicadids date to the Paleocene.^[3]

Cicadas are large insects characterized by their membranous wings, triangular-formation of three ocelli on the top of their heads, and their short, bristle-like antennae.^[4]

Cicadas are generally separated into two categories based on their adult emergence pattern. Annual cicadas remain underground as nymphs for two or more years and the population is not locally synchronized in its development, so that some adults mature each year or in most years. Periodical cicadas also have multiple-year life cycles but emerge in synchrony or near synchrony in any one location and are absent as adults in the intervening years. The most well-known periodical cicadas, genus Magicicada, emerge as adults every 13 or 17 years.^[5]

Cicadas are known for the loud airborne sounds that males of most species make to attract mates. One member of this family, Brevisana brevis, the "shrill thorntree cicada", is the loudest insect in the world, able to produce a song that exceeds 100 decibels.^[6] Male cicadas can produce four types of acoustic signals: songs, calls, low-amplitude songs, and disturbance sounds.^[7] Unlike members of the order Orthoptera (grasshoppers, crickets, and katydids), who use stridulation to produce sounds, members of Cicadidae produce sounds using a pair of tymbals, which are modified membranes located on the abdomen. In order to produce sound, each tymbal is pulled inwards by a connected muscle, and the deformation of the stiff membrane produces a 'click.'^[8]

Newly emerged cicadas climb up trees and molt into their adult stage, now equipped with wings. Males call to attract females, producing the distinct noisy songs cicadas are known for. Females respond to males with a 'click' made by flicking their wings. Once a male has found a female partner, his call changes to indicate that they are a mating pair.^[9]

Cicadidae is one of two families within the superfamily Cicadoidea. This superfamily is in the suborder Auchenorrhyncha, containing cicadas, hoppers, and relatives, within the order Hemiptera, the true bugs. There are five subfamilies within Cicadidae: Cicadettinae, Cicadinae, Tettigomyiinae, Tibicininae,^[10] and Derotettiginae.^[11]

• List of Cicadidae genera

•   Media related to Cicadidae at Wikimedia Commons
•   Data related to Cicadidae at Wikispecies