White drummer
The white drummer is a big cicada from the east coast of Australia. Its body is dark red-brown with a green head, and it has two big white bags on its sides. These white bags work like loudspeakers and make its rattling song extra loud.
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Fun facts
Its song is a steady rattle that can be heard far away. It sings in the daytime and at dusk.
Its song is made of about 65 tiny clicks every second.
Its see-through wings can be almost 5 centimetres long, longer than its body.
The grown-ups come out in December and January, which is summer in Australia.
The female lays her eggs only on living branches.
Most asked questions about White drummer
?Why is it called the white drummer?
Because of the two big white bags on its body. They make its loud song even louder, like a drum.
?Where does the white drummer live?
On the east coast of Australia, in swampy forests and mangroves, sitting on trees like sheoaks and banksias.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Arunta perulata
- Named by
- Guérin-Méneville, 1831
- Group
- True bugs and cicadas
- Family
- Cicadidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Hemiptera > Cicadidae
- Lives on
- Australia and Oceania
- Also known as
- White drummer cicada
Where the facts come from
- Arunta perulata (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 Toby Hudson. CC BY-SA 3.0 au, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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