Can you guys recognize this adorable creature?

[dom14]

Hey Guys,

This cute looking little big fella/girl flew into my work light at night.
Obviously startled and attracted by the bright light.
Then my neighbours cat jumped on the creature with a hope of getting him/her.
The feisty green monster made a pretty loud screeching sound & managed to startle the cat
for a fraction of a second.
I managed to chase the cat from the little creature and save him/her.

I can tell ya, this little big thing can make a pretty loud screeching sound for it's size.

What is he/she? An oversize cricket? A gigantic grasshopper?

It's about three inches long and have a fat belly, adorable looking cute eyes, some beautifully
coloured "nose", and heaven knows how he/she's making that loud noise, but it has something to
do with the apparatus under the belly.

I'm sure it's their mating season and they're bit feisty & desperate to reproduce.

[Sir Roofy]

Hey Guys,

This cute looking little big fella/girl flew into my work light at night.
Obviously startled and attracted by the bright light.
Then my neighbours cat jumped on the creature with a hope of getting him/her.
The feisty green monster made a pretty loud screeching sound & managed to startle the cat
for a fraction of a second.
I managed to chase the cat from the little creature and save him/her.

I can tell ya, this little big thing can make a pretty loud screeching sound for it's size.

What is he/she? An oversize cricket? A gigantic grasshopper?

It's about three inches long and have a fat belly, adorable looking cute eyes, some beautifully
coloured "nose", and heaven knows how he/she's making that loud noise, but it has something to
do with the apparatus under the belly.

I'm sure it's their mating season and they're bit feisty & desperate to reproduce.

Its a cicada ?

[Kimbo63]

Spot on sir
cicada It is

[Woof]

What Sir Roofy said

[dom14]

Are they common in Melbourne?

Are they natives here or introduced?

Any thoughts, guys?

It has a pretty loud screech. It's been screeching crazy somewhere in the backyard during the day at odd times.
Must be the mating call, but made wanna find my ear plugs. ;) :D

[Plasnart]

Yep cicada agree. Theyre noisy critters too! Was fortunate enough to see a heap of them "walking out" of their skins on the side of a tree one night a few years ago. Fascinating.

[DX grunt]

When I was a kid, we used to fill up a 750ml EMPTY beer bottle with water and push it into the hole in the ground to flush them out.

Then we'd let them go.

Computers weren't around when I was a kid. lol

[dom14]

Yep cicada agree. Theyre noisy critters too! Was fortunate enough to see a heap of them "walking out" of their skins on the side of a tree one night a few years ago. Fascinating.

I rarely find them in Melbourne East, though I hear them more and more lately, probably due to climate change/warming.
Dragonflies are pretty rare here in Melbourne east as well(I reckon they prefer more green dense, moist areas outside metro).

There're more mozzies, crickets, grasshoppers, etc.
As I'm typing this I can hear the noise of the cicada again. Must be the same critter that bumped into me yesterday.
I've got my headphones on listening to other stuff, but I still can't avoid the nagging screech. :)

Funny thing is that you can never find these critters during the day by chasing the location of the sound. :D

http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/offtrack/inside-the-lifecycle-of-australian-cicadas/6075298

[dom14]

When I was a kid, we used to fill up a 750ml EMPTY beer bottle with water and push it into the hole in the ground to flush them out.

Then we'd let them go.

Computers weren't around when I was a kid. lol

Good! Now I know how to get the bastard that deprives me of the sleep. ;)

[threedogs]

X 8 it will shed its outer shell/skin soon and leave it
stuck on a tree somewhere

[dom14]

X 8 it will shed its outer shell/skin soon and leave it
stuck on a tree somewhere

Yeah, sometime I find outer shells of spiders that I mistake for dead ones. :)

[threedogs]

They turn into beetles that I call Xmas beetles

[Clunk]

I think you might be getting mixed up TD

https://youtu.be/0JJz36rSob0

[dom14]

They turn into beetles that I call Xmas beetles

The one you see in the picture is an adult that has emerged from the exo-skeleton already.
I think after mating ritual, the males simply die.
I see xmas beetles here, but I reckon they are different.

[MudRunnerTD]

I think you might be getting mixed up TD

https://youtu.be/0JJz36rSob0


That's awesome!!! I grew up in Croydon in the Outer East of Melbourne (back then! Now a middle suburb) and every year we got the roar of Cicadas in the evenings in the Liquid Ambers in the back yard.

That Yourube vid was great!

[threedogs]

There are plenty along the Murray, great bait too lol

[dom14]

When I grabbed him from the wings('cos I wasn't sure whether it had a pointy beak that could sting), it rattled violently with
that screeching noise, letting me know it doesn't want handled that way.
It did the same thing to startle the cat.
Pretty impressive critter.
I'm most fascinated by the transparent(yet not reflective)wings.(zoom the third photo and have a close up look)
The complex transparent wings are amazing creation of evolutionary process.
Almost like there's some "intelligent designer" behind it.
See the organic material the wing is made of allows to clearly see through like a clear glass with no glassy reflection.
It's an amazing creation of nature with the natural mechanisms already available.
Without the cocoon(the womb basically), it would be hard to create such complex structures.
These are ancient bugs.
These cicadas were the size of an eagle with a wingspan of six feet or so, some 300 million years ago.

If you get a cocoon from the tree burrow and give it 50% oxygen in a glass bubble or something, the resulting
cicada might be quite few times bigger critter than this. :)
They've done that with cockroaches. :D

[dom14]

That's awesome!!! I grew up in Croydon in the Outer East of Melbourne (back then! Now a middle suburb) and every year we got the roar of Cicadas in the evenings in the Liquid Ambers in the back yard.

That Yourube vid was great!

I'm a newbee to the east, this is the first time I saw a one even though I hear their loud mating call all the time in spring to summer.
Yeah, apparently they like the sap of that tree.

[dom14]

There are plenty along the Murray, great bait too lol

X'mas beetles? I love them. I have collection of dead ones, colour wings still intact.( I didn't kill them, they were found dead. :) )

[dom14]

I think you might be getting mixed up TD

https://youtu.be/0JJz36rSob0

Great video. The ones we see in Melbourne East emerge annually I think, 'cos I've been hearing them pretty much
every summer for past few years.

[MB]

I think you might be getting mixed up TD https://youtu.be/0JJz36rSob0
Thanks Clunk mate, that was dead set awesome, humbling:-) !!

[Clunk]

Great video. The ones we see in Melbourne East emerge annually I think, 'cos I've been hearing them pretty much
every summer for past few years.
Yep same here, apparently over 220 types in Australia, around 2000 over the world. ..

[MB]

dom14 mate. Clunks video narrated something like 'Combined they are the noisiest awesome pricks on earth'. My experience some 20 + years ago in the Vic-Cathedral Ranges was truly deafening. We in fact cut off cigarette butts to use as ear plugs for the first 36hrs and then packed up camp and headed home. Nature always wins, lol ;-)

[Clunk]

@dom14 (http://www.nissanpatrol.com.au/forums/member.php?u=6597) mate. Clunks video narrated something like 'Combined they are the noisiest awesome pricks on earth'. My experience some 20 + years ago in the Vic-Cathedral Ranges was truly deafening. We in fact cut off cigarette butts to use as ear plugs for the first 36hrs and then packed up camp and headed home. Nature always wins, lol ;-)
first time I heard them in all their glory was about 12 years ago on a 20 acre bush block property my brother rented. First time I went up there you could here them in the distance, so I wnt for a wee walk though a bit of bush, then found myself in a bit of a clearing....... It was such an eerie sound, especially as I'd not heard it before, and loud was an understatement, It was actually quite disorientating to be honest

[dom14]

Yep same here, apparently over 220 types in Australia, around 2000 over the world. ..

No kidding!!!
You've done all that homework?!
Regardless you still owe me a stubby 'cos I triggered your curiosity. ;) :D

Don't you feel humbled 'cos these little creatures are way above us?
They were here hundreds of millions of years before us and they will be here for hundred of millions of years after we're gone.
That is the closest I get to be religious. :D

[dom14]

dom14 mate. Clunks video narrated something like 'Combined they are the noisiest awesome pricks on earth'. My experience some 20 + years ago in the Vic-Cathedral Ranges was truly deafening. We in fact cut off cigarette butts to use as ear plugs for the first 36hrs and then packed up camp and headed home. Nature always wins, lol ;-)

That is absolutely true!
The bastards drive me nuts at times, but still can't help loving them. :D

For the most part, they practically hurt nothing to survive and give back a lot to the nature.
The trees they suck the sap to survive do survive themselves and get stronger in the process.
It's heart warming to see there are so many creatures on the planet that are created by nature that gives more than they take.

For me, that's religion.