Possible Cicada In South Yorkshire? (1 Viewer)

[Simon M]

Hi,

Although I'm a birder I have little experience with insects other than butterflies and dragonflies. And wondered if anyone could provide any information relevant to the following:

Yesterday night (17th July) I heard what sounded almost exactly like the 'Cicadas' which I am familiar with from visit to Southern and Central France during the summer. It is far higher pitched than the rasp of any Grasshoppers, and has begun singing again, just after dusk this evening. I can't remember ever having heard and insect resembling this in the North of England (I recall perhaps hearing them on the South coast occasionally)? Does anyone have any ideas as to what species might be; there is certainly only one individual singing in the area, and I presume it to be a vagrant.

Thanks in advance for any replies.

Simon

 

[dinoman]

Hi,

Although I'm a birder I have little experience with insects other than butterflies and dragonflies. And wondered if anyone could provide any information relevant to the following:

Yesterday night (17th July) I heard what sounded almost exactly like the 'Cicadas' which I am familiar with from visit to Southern and Central France during the summer. It is far higher pitched than the rasp of any Grasshoppers, and has begun singing again, just after dusk this evening. I can't remember ever having heard and insect resembling this in the North of England (I recall perhaps hearing them on the South coast occasionally)? Does anyone have any ideas as to what species might be; there is certainly only one individual singing in the area, and I presume it to be a vagrant.

Thanks in advance for any replies.

Simon

yes cicadas are ther

 

[Simon M]

Looking through your previous posts 'dinoman' you reponse to one entitled "Does Ivory-billed Woodpecker still exist?" was 'Yes it does'
- being from america you'd have no knowledge on whether cicadas occur in this region so don't waste peoples time, something that from you post history, it is obvious you do continually.

 

[London Birder]

I thought I heard cicadas on a landfill site a few years back, I concluded I was wrong, do we have them?

 

[Stuart Read]

Probably not anymore, if they are still hanging on then the New Forest is the only possibility.
House Cricket is a very likely candidate especially on landfill sites, were there is artificial warmth. But in very hot summers like we are having at the moment they will expand into the countryside.
Stuart.

 

[paul mabbott]

Some caution on the use of the terms cicad and cicada - in some parts of the world these terms are used to describe *all* hoppers, not just members of the family Cicadidae, i.e. are applied to froghoppers, treehoppers &c..
Cicadetta montana was said to be the only British species (New Forest &c as someone mentioned). However it isn't impossible that other species might be introduced (as so many other exotics have been over recent years) and, with climate change, that they might establish.

 

[London Birder]

Probably not anymore, if they are still hanging on then the New Forest is the only possibility.
House Cricket is a very likely candidate especially on landfill sites, were there is artificial warmth. But in very hot summers like we are having at the moment they will expand into the countryside.
Stuart.

thanks for that Stuart.

 

[Touty]

Hi,

Although I'm a birder I have little experience with insects other than butterflies and dragonflies. And wondered if anyone could provide any information relevant to the following:

Yesterday night (17th July) I heard what sounded almost exactly like the 'Cicadas' which I am familiar with from visit to Southern and Central France during the summer. It is far higher pitched than the rasp of any Grasshoppers, and has begun singing again, just after dusk this evening. I can't remember ever having heard and insect resembling this in the North of England (I recall perhaps hearing them on the South coast occasionally)? Does anyone have any ideas as to what species might be; there is certainly only one individual singing in the area, and I presume it to be a vagrant.

Thanks in advance for any replies.

Simon

I'd agree with the house cricket diagnosis. I heard one the other day in Cheshunt (Herts) coming from a crack in the road at a busy junction next to a kebab shop. Cicadas "sing" (I can hear them as I write) at the hottest time of the day and (I would say) never at night in Europe. The New Forest cicada is virtually inaudible compared to the racket of southern European species.

 

[Simon M]

Thanks for all the reponses, I used the term Cicada only generically - Only because the thing sounds more like species Im used to hearing on the continent and had only been 'singing' nocturnally.

 

[dendroica]

Yeah - I'd go with House Cricket. They do sound similar to cicadas. Marshall and Haes states "the chirp of this cricket is repeated with monotonous regularity over long periods, usually in the eveing or night. Although this sound used to be a familar sound, today it is to be heard widely only during long, hot summers when the crickets wander..." Last ones I heard were at Aldershot army barracks....

 

[andymjukes]

cicadas

The new forest cicada has not been heards for a long time and it is possible it is extinct.
In south yorkshire the possibilities are dark bush-cricket which has a "£chirp" and is not continuous but is higfh pitched and can be heard form several metres with good ears.
The house cricket (whicih as peopel have suggested) is a strong possibility. Agian this chirps and is a bit louder thatn a dark bush-cricket especially in hot weathers. If you are near a garden centre then it could be an exotic vagrent (other than the naturalised house cricket). Apparently there have been a spate of mole circket records this year (from garden centres mainly). These sound like nightjar and sing at night as do the othersd i suggested. If you are in the south the loud singing you are hearing is most likely yht egreat green bush-cricket, our largerest bush-criucket., this is found mainly on or near the coast and is quite a beast!
I hope this hewlps a bit.