Outback cicada discovery

Five potentially new species of cicadas have been uncovered in outback Queensland.

A dried specimen from the genus Tryella and several Cicadettini shells were found during a UQ Outback Ecology field trip at Idalia National Park, south-west of Blackall.

Cicadas are sap sucking bugs that use their proboscis to feed and are known usually for their drones.

Cicada expert and PhD student Lindsay Popple said it would take a long time to classify them because he would have to check museum records and needed to find more of the species and record their songs.

“It’s not unusual to find new species, especially in places like this where it’s fairly desolate and isolated,” Mr Popple said.

“Only a few years ago one of the biggest cicadas was described and found in this area.”

The Idalia specimens were found in acacia species, known as mulga, brigalow and bendee.

Mr Popple is researching cicada acoustics and has spent much of his time recording cicada songs with a long range parabola microphone and analysing the songs with oscillographic software.

Only the males sing songs, which vary in length from less than a second to over half an hour depending on the type, and each species has its own distinct call used in mating.

Mr Popple is researching which elements of the songs are important for mate recognition.