The Lyristes plebejus

Found this by luck really - heard it singing but struggled to pinpoint the noise and location of it. Then there was a single tree about 6' tall and here it was - singing away quite happily. I've heard these for the past 3 years when I've been to Corfu but I've never been able to see one. I was pleased I did find one and get a shot - amazing creatures.

comments (11)

Ferdy Christant

Lion

That's a stunning exposure, one of the most detailed cicada photos I've seen so far. Posted 9 years ago
1. Stuart
  
  Lion
  
  Thanks Ferdy - High praise indeed given the amazing quality of the other cicada photos that are on here! I had a failure of my ring flash too - so the fact this came out as well as it did is pretty lucky really :) Posted 9 years ago
2. 1. Ferdy Christant
    
    Lion
    
    Did one side of the ring flash fail? That may explain the beauty of the light. Light coming from the side always brings out the best in subjects. Posted 9 years ago
  2. 1. Stuart
      
      Lion
      
      Yes that's right - thankfully the sun was making things easier for me to get the lighting right also. Posted 9 years ago

Ferdy Christant

Lion

Hmmm, not even eol.org knows this name "Tibicen plebejus". I'm thinking it is perhaps renamed or reclassified, do you have a good source of species info for this one? Posted 9 years ago
1. Stuart
  
  Lion
  
  A good source - perhaps so, I found this which seemed to match the image I took.
  http://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-common-southern-european-cicada-lyristes-plebejus-lyristes-plebeius-97249109.html Posted 9 years ago
2. 1. Ferdy Christant
    
    Lion
    
    Thank you, "Lyristes plebejus" is the name I was looking for. The species seems to have multiple synonyms. Posted 9 years ago
3. WildFlower
  
  Lion
  
  Tibicen plebejus is the accepted name according to the current Catalogue of Life, although many other sites use the name Lyristes plebejus. There is a comment about it here:
  http://www.cicadamania.com/cicadas/category/types/lyristes/
  http://www.catalogueoflife.org/col/details/species/id/e280f964f71c7a950463153b55d4fb98/source/tree
  http://eol.org/pages/3741740/overview
  https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyristes_plebejus
  http://www.biolib.cz/en/taxon/id102868/ Posted 9 years ago
4. 1. Ferdy Christant
    
    Lion
    
    "To recap, European Tibicen/Lyristes are Tibicen… "
    
    Strange that EOL does not yet reflect this. Posted 9 years ago

Patomarazul

Lion

Nice close-up! Usually we hear these guys in the summer but they are so difficult to spot! :-)
Posted 9 years ago
1. Stuart
  
  Lion
  
  Thank you very much :), yes, I think I was pretty lucky to see it. I'm glad I did! Posted 9 years ago