Quesada gigas ( Olivier, 1790 )

Sanborn, Allen F., 2020, The cicadas (Hemiptera: Cicadidae) of Ecuador including the description of five new species, a new subtribe, four new synonymies, and fifteen new records, Zootaxa 4880 (1), pp. 1-80 : 33-34

Quesada gigas ( Olivier, 1790)

Cicada gigas Olivier 1790: 750 . (Java).

Cicada triupsilon Walker 1850: 103 . (Unknown collection locality)

Cicada sonans Walker 1850: 104 . (Unknown collection locality)

Cicada consonans Walker 1850: 106 . (West Coast of America)

Cicada vibrans Walker 1850: 107 . (Unknown collection locality)

Tympanoterpes sibilarix Berg 1879: 141 .

REMARKS.—The type locality of Java is a mistake. The species is found over most of and is restricted to the New World ( Sanborn & Heath 2014; 2017).

Quesada gigas is one of if not the largest of the Ecuadorian cicadas with body lengths up to 45 mm and wingspans of 120 mm having been reported ( Sanborn & Heath 2017). The body is brown marked with piceous, the male abdomen is widest at segments 3 and 4, and male timbal covers recurve along the posterior timbal cavity forming a ribbon-like structure posterior to the timbals with a small triangular extension laterally. The song sounds like a steam whistle.

DISTRIBUTION.—This species may have the most extensive north to south range of any cicada species. It has been reported from as far south as central Argentina, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, the Antilles, the West Indies, Trinidad & Tobago, Uruguay, Venezuela, extending northward into the southern United States ( Metcalf 1963a; Duffels & van der Laan 1985; Maccagnan & Martinelli 2011; Sanborn 2011b; 2013; 2014a; 2018c; 2019b; 2020b, d, e; Maccagnan et al. 2014; Monteiro et al. 2014; Sanborn & Heath 2014; Reis et al. 2015; Maccagnan et al. 2017; Oliveira et al. 2017). The species is identified from Ecuador with no specific locality in Jacobi (1907a). Goding (1925) reported the species from Surula and Macas in Morona Santiago province.