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Sticker of Green grocer
Bug card No. 0672 of 1,500

Green grocer

Cyclochila australasiae
Eats: PlantsTrue bugs and cicadasGardens and meadows6 legs

The green grocer is a big green cicada from Australia with bright red eyes. It is one of the loudest insects in the whole world. On hot summer afternoons, the males sing so loudly that it can hurt your ears.

Lives in
Southeastern Australia, near the coast, in gardens, parks and bushland
Length
4 cm (1.6 in)
Wingspan
11 to 13 cm (4.3 to 5.1 in)
Top speed
about 13 km/h (8.1 mph)
Flying, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It does not bite or sting, it is just very loud.
What does it eat?
It drinks sap from plants. The young ones live underground and suck sap from roots, and the grown-ups drink sap from trees.
For real!Photo of Green grocer
Picture by Toby Hudson. CC BY-SA 3.0 au, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

Green grocer about 4 cm long (1.6 in)A toy building brick about 3.2 cm (1.3 in)A crayon about 9 cm (3.5 in)A banana about 18 cm (7.1 in)

How wide are its wings?

Green grocer wings about 13 cm tip to tip (5.1 in)A crayon about 9 cm (3.5 in)A banana about 18 cm (7.1 in)A house cat about 50 cm (20 in)
as long as 7 grains of rice in a rowwings as wide as your handcould fly across a whole football pitch in 29 secondsmoves 90 times its own body length every second

How big is Green grocer compared to YOU?

Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.

How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

Its song can reach 120 decibels, about as loud as a rock concert.

2

It makes its sound by quickly clicking special ribs on its body, and an air bag inside makes the sound even louder.

3

It spends about seven years underground as a young one, and then lives only about six weeks as a flying grown-up.

4

It comes in different colours with funny names: yellow ones are called yellow Mondays, and rare ones are called chocolate soldiers, blue moons and masked devils.

5

In summer you can find its empty old skins stuck to tree trunks.

you asked

Most asked questions about Green grocer

?How loud is a green grocer cicada?

Very loud. Its call can reach 120 decibels, making it one of the loudest insects in the world.

?How long does a green grocer live?

About six to seven years in total, almost all of it underground. As a flying adult it lives about six weeks.

?What does a green grocer eat?

It drinks plant sap, from roots when it is young and from trees as an adult.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Cyclochila australasiae
Named by
Donovan, 1805
Group
True bugs and cicadas
Family
Cicadidae
Classification
Insecta > Hemiptera > Cicadidae
Lives on
Australia and Oceania
Also known as
Yellow Monday, Great green cicada, Chocolate soldier, Blue moon

Where the facts come from

  1. Cyclochila australasiae (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 Toby Hudson. CC BY-SA 3.0 au, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same 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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