KEY POINTS:
The drone of chirping cicadas is the theme song of summer but few New Zealanders probably realise there are thought to be over 40 species of the little understood insect found here.
Landcare Research wants to learn more about the noisy insect and in a world first has launched a "virtual identification guide" to cicadas.
The project provides the digitisation of diagnostic information from literature, insect collections, and a private photo library to provide a freely accessible web-based identification and information retrieval tool covering the cicada fauna of the entire country.
Dr Marie-Claude Lariviere, a bug specialist, said cicadas were a "very iconic" insect group.
Dr Lariviere said cicadas were found all over New Zealand but several species were very restricted in their distribution. There were thought to be 42 species although she suspected there could be another 20 if they could be correctly identified. She said that was not an easy task by eye alone, but it was hoped the website would help.
Different species of cicadas also had technically different songs depending on the placing of ridges on the male timbal organ and the way they were stretched.
It was the male that made sound, a mating call during the breeding season which peaked in February.
Dr Lariviere said the song could also be used as an alarm.
Knowledge about cicadas was scanty despite the fact they were so commonplace.
Three out of the five cicada genera and all 42 native species and subspecies currently recorded from New Zealand were found nowhere else in the world.
"In spite of this, the identity of over 30 per cent of the New Zealand species has never been studied in detail and although cicadas have recently received renewed interest from molecular biologists, much of the information that is available for species recognition is either incomplete or has not been updated since the 1980s."
Dr Lariviere said the ability of biodiversity managers, researchers, students, and members of the public, to access information had been difficult due to the scattered and often highly technical nature of available publications.
She hoped the virtual identification guide would bring useful resources together in a format more palatable to non-specialists.
It provided a list of all species and subspecies, a selected bibliography, high definition images and identification aids for individual genera and species, as well as a location guide allowing users to obtain list of cicadas likely to occur in particular areas of the country.
Hyperlinks to associated information included images of live individuals and MP3 files of cicada songs.
Dr Lariviere said overseas studies had already demonstrated that cicadas could be key indicators of species richness hotspots and areas with unique animal and plant life.
"Consequently, cicadas are a group of high interest to biodiversity and conservation workers as well as to the general public."
New Zealand Cicadas (Hemiptera: Cicadidae): A virtual identification guide
