Tibicen similaris Davis

Sanborn, Allen F., Phillips, Polly K. & Gilllis, Philip, 2008, The Cicadas of Florida (Hemiptera: Cicadoidea: Cicadidae), Zootaxa 1916, pp. 1-43 : 11-12

Tibicen similaris Davis (Figs. 10, 121–129)

Cicada similaris Smith & Grossbeck 1907: 125 . Type locality: Fernandina, Nassau County, Florida. Holotype male is in the United States Natural Musuem ( Sanborn 1999).

Adults are active through the summer into the fall. They first emerge in early to mid-June and can be heard singing until late October. The most common collection dates are in August. No analysis of the song has been published but it begins as a low constant buzzing followed by a slow vibrato, then a fast paced vibrato before terminating in a constant buzz (personal observation).

Tibicen similaris has an expansive distribution primarily in the north and central regions of the state being collected in most of the subdivisions of the Southeastern Plains and Southern Coastal Plains ecoregions (Fig. 10). The 28 counties where it has been collected are Alachua, Brevard, Duval, Escambia, Gadsden, Hillsborough, Jackson, Jefferson, Lake, Lee, Leon, Levy, Liberty, Madison, Manatee, Nassau, Okaloosa, Orange, Pasco, Pinellas, Polk, Putnam, Seminole, St. John’s, Sumter, Suwannee, Volusia, and Wakulla. The species is not found in the Everglades.

As this work is being revised for final submission, a new species of Tibicen near T. similaris has been found by K. Hill and D. Marshall of the University of Connecticut. The new species has a significantly different song but morphological affinities to T. similaris . The new species is found within the Apalachicola region of Florida and Georgia (Hill and Marshall, personal communication).