Magicicada neotredecim

Magicicada neotredecim
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hemiptera
Suborder: Auchenorrhyncha
Family: Cicadidae
Genus: Magicicada
Species:
M. neotredecim
Binomial name
Magicicada neotredecim
Marshall & Cooley, 2000

Magicicada neotredecim is the most recently discovered species of periodical cicada. Like all Magicicada species, M. neotredecim has reddish eyes and wing veins and a black dorsal thorax.[1] It has a 13-year life cycle but seems to be most closely related to the 17-year species Magicicada septendecim. Both species are distinguished by broad orange stripes on the abdomen and a unique high-pitched song said to resemble someone calling "weeeee-whoa" or "Pharaoh." They differ only in life cycle length.[2]

Another closely related 13-year species Magicicada tredecim differs very slightly from M. neotredecim, and for many years two were considered one species with slight differences in abdomen color and mitochondrial DNA suggesting a zone of hybridization or introgression between 13-year and 17-year -decim populations. Then in 1998, scientists studying recordings of the chorus sound of Brood XIX recognized that the low-pitch component of the chorus contained two peak frequencies in some midwestern populations, corresponding to the songs of two sympatric 13-yr species related to M. septendecim.[2][3] Experiments subsequently demonstrated the existence of two populations of female cicadas that responded selectively based on the two male song frequencies.[4] Because of their many similarities, M. neotredecim, M. tredecim, and M. septendecim are often described together as "decim periodical cicadas."

  1. ^ Alexander, Richard D.; Thomas E. Moore (1962). "The Evolutionary Relationships of 17-Year and 13-Year Cicadas, and Three New Species (Homoptera, Cicadidae, Magicicada)" (PDF). University of Michigan Museum of Zoology. Retrieved 9 June 2011.
  2. ^ a b "Periodical Cicada Page". University of Michigan. Retrieved 10 June 2011.
  3. ^ "Magicicada neotredecim Marshall and Cooley 2000". National Geographic Society. Retrieved 10 June 2011.
  4. ^ Marshall, David C.; John R. Cooley (2000). "Reproductive character displacement and speciation in periodical cicadas, and a new 13- year species, Magicicada neotredecim" (PDF). Evolution. 54 (4): 1313–1325. doi:10.1111/j.0014-3820.2000.tb00564.x. PMID 11005298. Retrieved 11 June 2011.