Скачать или смотреть Floury Baker Cicada Calling (Aleeta curvicosta) (2023-02-05)

Aleeta curvicosta, known as the floury baker or floury miller, is native to Australia's eastern coastline and is the only described species in the genus Aleeta.

The name floury baker is derived from the white, flour-like filaments covering the adult body. Its body and eyes are generally brown with pale patterns including a light-coloured line along the midline of the pronotum. Its forewings have distinctive dark brown patches at the base of two of their apical cells.

The female is larger than the male, although species size overall varies geographically, with larger animals associated with regions of higher rainfall. The male has distinctive genitalia and a loud and complex call generated by the frequent buckling of ribbed tymbals and amplified by abdominal air sacs.

The floury baker is solitary and occurs in low densities. Individuals typically emerge from the soil through a three-month period from late November to late February, and can be encountered until May. It is found on a wide variety of plants, most commonly on species in the family Myrtaceae, more specifically various species of Melaleuca and Callistemon plants, as well as brown hazelwood (Lysicarpus angustifolius) and pegunny (Bauhinia hookeri).

Floury bakers are not proficient fliers compared with other Australian cicadas. They are slow, which almost doubles when they are pursued or provoked. They are only able to generate low aerodynamic power and their flights are relatively short, lasting around 3.4 s, with an average of 3.3 changes in direction. They are not adept at landing...

Larger species of cicada like A. curvicosta are thought to spend 2-8 years underground, during which time they grow and feed through their rostrum on the sap from tree roots. They moult five times before emerging from the ground at night to shed their final shell. The adult floury baker normally perches facing downwards and on branches of trees rather than trunks