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''Macrotristria angularis'', commonly known as the cherrynose, is an Australian
German naturalist
cicada
The cicadas () are a superfamily, the Cicadoidea, of insects in the order Hemiptera (true bugs). They are in the suborder Auchenorrhyncha, along with smaller jumping bugs such as leafhoppers and froghoppers. The superfamily is divided into two ...
native to eastern Australia, where it is found in sclerophyll
Sclerophyll is a type of vegetation that is adapted to long periods of dryness and heat. The plants feature hard leaves, short internodes (the distance between leaves along the stem) and leaf orientation which is parallel or oblique to direct ...
forests.
Taxonomy
German naturalist Ernst Friedrich Germar
Ernst Friedrich Germar (3 November 1786 – 8 July 1853) was a German professor and director of the Mineralogical Museum at Halle. As well as being a mineralogist he was interested in entomology and particularly in the Coleoptera and Hemiptera. ...
described the cherrynose in 1834 as ''Cicada angularis'', reporting its type locality incorrectly as Sierra Leone. Swedish entomologist Carl Stål
Carl Stål (21 March 1833 – 13 June 1878) was a Swedish entomologist specialising in Hemiptera.
He was born at Karlberg Castle, Stockholm on 21 March 1833 and died at Frösundavik near Stockholm on 13 June 1878. He was the son of architect, au ...
named the genus
Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial n ...
''Macrotristria
''Macrotristria'' is a genus of cicada in the cryptotympanini tribe of the Cicadinae subfamily. Twenty five species are listed in the Atlas of Living Australia.
Species
Macrotristria douglasi Burns, 1964
Macrotristria maculicollis Ashton, ...
'' in 1870, though this was misspelt as ''Macrotristia'' and ''Macrotistria'' in some later publications. The cherrynose is the type species
In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specimen( ...
of the genus.
The cherrynose gets its common name from a red structure that resembles a nose, yet is in fact a structure containing muscles that help the cicada suck xylem
Xylem is one of the two types of transport tissue in vascular plants, the other being phloem. The basic function of xylem is to transport water from roots to stems and leaves, but it also transports nutrients. The word ''xylem'' is derived fr ...
from trees with its proboscis. An alternate common name is whiskey drinker.
Description
The cherrynose is a medium- to large cicada, the male and female similar in appearance. The head and thorax are black (or red-brown in North and Central Queensland) with orange markings. The postclypeus is red. The underparts are brown to blackish. They have an array of cuticular nanostructures on the transparent panes of their wings - conical protuberances with a spacing and height of about 200 nm, tipped with a spherical cap with a radius of curvature of around 25-45 nm. These act as anti-wetting and anti-reflective surfaces. The call has a trilling sound and is made in the day and at sunset.Distribution and habitat
The adult cherrynose is found on the upper branches and trunks of tall eucalypts in sclerophyll forests, and is becoming rare in the Sydney region. They have also been recorded from sheoaks, apples (''Angophora
''Angophora'' is a genus of nine species of trees and shrubs in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae. Endemic to eastern Australia, they differ from other eucalypts in having juvenile and adult leaves arranged in opposite pairs, sepals reduced to project ...
''), native cypress (''Callitris
''Callitris'' is a genus of coniferous trees in the Cupressaceae (cypress family). There are 16 recognized species in the genus, of which 13 are native to Australia and the other three (''C. neocaledonica, C. sulcata'' and ''C. ...
'') and ''Tamarix aphylla
''Tamarix aphylla'' is the largest known species of ''Tamarix'', with heights up to . The species has a variety of common names, including Athel tamarisk, Athel tree, and Athel pine. It is an evergreen tree, native across North, East, and Centra ...
''.
See also
*List of cicadas of Australia
This is a list of the cicadas found in Australia including its outlying islands and territories. The outlying islands covered include: Christmas, Cocos (Keeling), Ashmore, Torres Strait, Coral Sea, Lord Howe, Norfolk, Macquarie, and Heard/M ...
References
External links
* {{Taxonbar, from=Q15266012 Macrotristriini Hemiptera of Australia Insects described in 1834