Cicadas
Maoricicada otagoensis otagoensis. Image - B Rhode
TFBIS funded specimen information - Cicadas
The purpose of TFBIS (Terrestrial and Freshwater Biodiversity Information Systems) funding for digitising specimen records of cicadas was to improve access to information about this conspicious group of insects that are the subjects of many studies throughout the world. Biodiversity studies in regions neighbouring New Zealand have already demonstrated that cicadas can be key indicators of species richness hotspots and areas with unique animal and plant life. Consequently, among the Hemiptera, cicadas are a group of high interest to biodiversity and conservation workers as well as to the general public.
A virtual identification guide to genera and species. currently being funded by TFBIS and authored by Larivière, Larochelle & Rhode, is now available through the Hemiptera website .
TFBIS funding was provided to record collecting events from major collections in New Zealand, so as to achieve as wide a coverage as possible. Georeferencing was to be provided. A collecting event was considered to be a record of a species collected from a locality on a particular date by a collector. Each collecting event may consist of a single specimen or many specimens.
Many of these specimens were used in revisions of the New Zealand cicadas, e.g., Dugdale, J. S.; Fleming, C. A. 1978. New Zealand cicadas of the genus Maoricicada (Homoptera: Tibicinidae). New Zealand Journal of Zoology 5(2): 295-340, and Fleming, C. A. 1984. The cicada genus Kikihia Dugdale (Hemiptera: Homoptera). Part 1. The New Zealand green foliage cicadas. Records of the National Museum of New Zealand 2(16): 191-206.
In total, there are more than 7,500 collecting events, referring to about 11,750 specimens. This information is provided on separate web pages for each collection of the 6 main collections involved in the project. In addition, the same information is available as downloadable Excel spreadsheets to allow users to rearrange the information for their own purposes.
Links to specimen information for different collections
These specimen records are provided on the understanding that the names with specimens reflect the curation status of individual collections up to 2007, and the identity of all specimens has not necessarily been validated by a cicada specialist. Any queries should be directed to the curator providing the information or who is responsible for the invertebrate collection.
- AMNZ, Auckland Museum, Auckland (Dr J. W. Early)
- CMNZ, Canterbury Museum, Christchurch (Dr S. D. Pollard)
- LUNZ, Entomological Museum, Lincoln University, Canterbury (Mr J. W. M. Marris)
- MONZ, Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington (Mr P. J. Sirvid)
- NZAC, New Zealand Arthropod Collection, Landcare Research, Auckland (Dr T. K. Crosby)
- OMNZ, Otago Museum, Dunedin (Ms C. Fraser)