Commonly-found cicada species sheds its foreign tag to embrace an Indian identity

Subject :Environment

Section: Species in new

Context:

A ‘foreign’cicada that is commonly found in several parts of South India has assumed an Indian identity.

Details:

The insect species that has now been christened Purana cheeveeda (after its Malayalam name Cheeveedu) used to be mistaken for Purana tigrina, a species that was first described in Malaysia in 1850.
In view of the differences in their morphological characteristics, the Association for Advancement in Entomology has corrected the longstanding error in taxonomic identification and has excluded the Malaysian species from the South Indian cicada fauna.

Basic account

The taxonomic studies conducted after 1850 treated the cicada seen in the region as the Malaysian species on account of superficial similarities.
The distribution of P. cheeveeda could extend across the tropical evergreen forests ranging from Goa to Kanyakumari.
The researchers point out the study strengthened the possibility of cicadas being geographically and attitudinally restricted in distribution, implying a high degree of endemism.

About Cicadas:

The cicadas are a superfamily, the Cicadoidea, of insects in the order Hemiptera (true bugs).
The superfamily is divided into two families, theTettigarctidae, with two species in Australia, and the Cicadidae, with more than 3,000 species described from around the world; many species remain undescribed.
Cicadas have prominent eyes set wide apart, short antennae, and membranous front wings. They have an exceptionally loud song, produced in most species by the rapid buckling and unbuckling of drumlike tymbals.
They typically live in trees,feeding on watery sap from xylem tissue, and laying their eggs in a slit in the bark.
Most cicadas are cryptic. The vast majority of species are active during the day as adults, with some calling at dawn or dusk. Only a rare few species are known to be nocturnal.