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Bark Squeaker - Pauropsalta corticinus
Family Cicadidae
This page contains pictures and information about Bark Squeaker Cicadas that we found in the Brisbane area, Queensland, Australia.
- Body length 20mm
- This cicada is brown to dark brown in colour, small in size. Wings are clear, but there is a small spot on each wing edge which form one larger spot at where four wings meet. They call with zip-zip-zip for about 10 time then followed by a long zip.
- In Mt Cotton mid summer, we found many of them on Lantana.
- We took the above photos on mid summer in a Eucalyptus forest near Mt-Cotton. The cicada was at rest on a young Acacia tree. The cicada was quite camera friendly, it let me take a few photos very closely before it flew away.
- Pictures was taken in Karawatha Forest during mid summer.
- We found this cicada specie does not afraid of human. Different of them had land on our body a few times. This one even land on my hand and let me have the close inspection.
- Pictures above show a female was laying eggs. Notice the her ovipositor and the cut marks on stem.
- This small cicada can be found on stem and large tree trunk.
- Lindsay Popple sent us email and advised that "it could be either Bark Squeaker Pauropsalta corticinus or Small Bark Squeaker Pauropsalta fuscata. Both occur in the Mt Cotton area. These species do differ slightly in size and also body shape, but it is hard to tell from the photos. They do produce very different calls."
- Reference:
- 1. Wildlife of Greater Brisbane - Queensland Museum: Brisbane (1997), p86.
- 2. Species Pauropsalta corticinus Ewart, 1989 - Australian Faunal Directory, Australian Biological Resources Study.
