Sexing Cicadas

What is a summer day without the roaring symphony of male cicadas seducing potential mates? Anyone visiting our natural play area this past August would likely attest to their powerful presence. In fact, several community members went as far as to collect some of the area's casualties and later, generously donate them for our insect collection. Thankful for the effort put forth in gathering the cicadas, I still have the heavy task of identifying each one. 

No two species of animals are entirely alike, but cicadas sure are more difficult than many to identify. Much of the challenge lies in picking up on minute differences in color, size, or patterning. To add difficulty, the three specimens I've been working on had dried, been frozen, rehydrated for pinning, and then dried again since they died this summer. This process naturally altered some of their individual nuances. Giving in to the fact that I may not have the capabilities of identifying down to species entirely on my own, I had shifted my focus towards sexing the three cicadas. It's a relatively easy task that required less than 5 minutes of my time.

I turned the cicadas over to observe the underside of their abdomens and used a handy online guide for reference. First off, only males make their characteristic sound. They have tymbal covers, which are structures used to modulate their sound-producing organ. One of the three has these covers—he must be male and the other two female. I checked one more area just to be sure. 

The very end of their abdomens also look different, as females have a long ovipositor to deposit eggs while males do not. A simple inspection of each cicada confirmed that one is indeed a male and two are female. Easy-peasy!