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Sticker of Davis's southeastern dog-day cicada
Bug card No. 1311 of 4,939

Davis's southeastern dog-day cicada

Neotibicen davisi
Name means: “named after William Thompson Davis, an American cicada expert”
Eats: PlantsTrue bugs and cicadasForests and woods6 legs

This cicada is a chunky insect from the south-east of the United States that sings loudly from the trees. Dog-day cicadas are named after the hot dog days of late summer, when they sing the most.

Lives in
The south-eastern United States, in trees
Top speed
about 12 km/h (7.5 mph)
Flying, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. Cicadas cannot sting and do not bite people.
What does it eat?
It drinks sap from trees. Its babies live underground and drink juice from tree roots.
For real!Photo of Davis's southeastern dog-day cicada
Picture by Judy Gallagher. CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

Only male cicadas sing. They make the sound with drum-like parts on their bodies.

2

Baby cicadas, called nymphs, live underground for a long time before they come up.

3

When a nymph is ready, it climbs up a tree, splits its skin and comes out with wings. The empty skin stays stuck to the bark.

you asked

Most asked questions about Davis's southeastern dog-day cicada

?Do cicadas bite or sting?

No. Cicadas cannot sting and do not bite people.

?Why are cicadas so loud?

The males sing loudly to call females.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Neotibicen davisi
Named by
Smith & Grossbeck, 1907
Group
True bugs and cicadas
Family
Cicadidae
Classification
Insecta > Hemiptera > Cicadidae
Lives on
North America
Also known as
Southern dog-day cicada

Where the facts come from

  1. Neotibicen davisi (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
  2. Picture by Judy Gallagher. CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.

If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.

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More from the same group: True bugs and cicadas

Also at home here: Forests and woods

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