Chremistica ochracea

Description

Chremistica ochracea (Walker, 1850) is a cicada species of the genus Chremistica and suborder Auchenorrhyncha, which includes cicadas, leafhoppers, planthoppers, treehoppers, froghoppers and spittlebugs. They are usually referred to as 'thin winged cicada' in Taiwan and 'peaceful cicada' in China due to their abundance in these areas. They can be identified by their green appearance with thin, greenish, transparent wings and are heavily distributed in China, Taiwan, Japan, India and Malaya. However, there are limited number of scientific papers that describe the characteristics and behaviour of this species in detail. They are also used to be known as Rihana ochracea which was introduced by Distant (1904), claiming Rihana as a new genus. Genus Rihana however, was also known as a subgenus of Cicada Linnaeus and to some species from Cicada Stål, Chremistica Stål and Diceroprocta Stål. Based on diagnosis on all Chremistica species erected by Stål in 1870, their eyes are small or medium-sized, very prominent laterally and set widely apart on their triangular head with the piece of frontoclypeus anteriorly prominent. Its tymbal is completely covered with tymbal covering. By looking at the abdomen, the 8th tergum will appear much longer than the 7th tergum in median length. Their femurs on the forelegs have two big spines with several small spines on the ventral part of the forelegs. The operculum of males are longitudinal and overlapped each other but not exceeding the posterior margin of the third abdominal sternum. In most cases, the apex of the operculum is broadly rounded and can be obviously seen by the naked eye. Some of these species may have light green, earthy red or yellow (ochreous) coloured body. A transverse black fascia can be seen along its anterior head margin and black markings on margin of each ocellus near to its castaneous eyes. Their ventral side can appear powdery or scaly (pollinosity) white on a pale ochreous or pale green body surface. Similar to majority of other cicadas, their wings are translucent and glassy (hyaline) without any darkening marks or tinge (infuscation). A full adult cicada, or also known as an imago, can grow up to 31 mm (1.2 in) in body length for males, 24.4 mm (0.96 in) for female cicadas. Their total length however, can reach up to 45 mm (1.8 in) for male cicadas and 43 mm (1.7 in) for females.