Red Bandit Cicada: Pyropsalta melete

Location: Bunbury, Western Australia
Season: Summer, January

 Order: Hemiptera 

Suborder: Auchenorrhyncha

Infraorder: Cicadomorphia

Superfamily: Cicadoidea

Family: Cicadidae

Subfamily: Cicadittinae 

Tribe: Cicadettini 

Genus: Pyropsalta
 Pyropsalta melete

Cicadas are the characteristic of Australian summer. I just have to open my front door to have my ears filled with the noise of raging Cicadas in open woodland outside. Every plant in my garden has an empty cicada exuvia from which the adult cicadas have emerged. You just have to look closer to see what beautiful insects they are. This cicada was found on my porch. Sadly, it had lost half of its left forelimb but it was a very strong flier and flew away making a lot of noise.

This is the Red Bandit. Red Bandit, P. melete is a species of cicadas found in and around Bunbury region out of the 13 individual species. This is a black cicada with orange-red rings around its abdomen. The thorax has orange marking too. It is closely related to Little Orange Bandit, which can be differentiated from Red Bandit by the lack of the thick red band on the abdomen. The name Pyropsalta in Latin 'pyro' which refers to the fiery red band and 'psalta' which translates to a psalm, the 'harp song' referring to the song it sings. It sings a song, mostly a tick-tock song, with constant ticking.

Red Bandit Cicada found in Big Swamp Wildlife Park

The shed exoskeleton of cicada in my backyard

Reference: Australian Cicada List