Priest cicada
Sinfonia opalifera
Name means: “Its Japanese name, tsuku-tsuku-bōshi, copies the sound of its song.”
The priest cicada is a cicada from East Asia. In Japan it is famous for its song, which sounds like tsuku-tsuku-boshi. You can hear it at the end of summer, from July until about October.
Lives in
China, Japan, Korea and Taiwan
Length
4 to 4.6 cm (1.6 to 1.8 in)
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It cannot bite or sting.
What does it eat?
Like other cicadas, it drinks sap from trees.
How big is it?
How long is it?
🍚as long as 8 grains of rice in a row⚽could fly across a whole football pitch in 27 seconds⚡moves 85 times its own body length every second
How big is Priest cicada compared to YOU?
Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.
How fast is it?
A person walking about 5 km/h (3.1 mph)
A kid running fast about 13 km/h (8.1 mph)
Priest cicada about 14 km/h (8.7 mph)
A grown-up on a bike about 25 km/h (16 mph)
cool stuff
Fun facts
1
It takes about two years to grow from egg to adult, and sometimes up to five.
2
The males are a little bigger than the females.
3
When people in Japan hear its song, they know summer is ending.
you asked
Most asked questions about Priest cicada
?What does the priest cicada sound like?
In Japan people say its song goes tsuku-tsuku-boshi, and that is its Japanese name.
?When can I hear the priest cicada?
From July until about October.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Sinfonia opalifera
- Group
- True bugs and cicadas
- Family
- Cicadidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Hemiptera > Cicadidae
- Lives on
- Asia
- Also known as
- Walker's cicada, Elongate cicada
Where the facts come from
- Sinfonia opalifera (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Alpsdake. CC BY-SA 4.0, 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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