Quesada gigas ( Olivier, 1790 )

Sanborn, Allen F., 2020, The cicadas (Hemiptera: Cicadidae) of Trinidad and Tobago including the description of three new species and seven new records, with new records for several additional Caribbean Islands, Zootaxa 4838 (4), pp. 535-565 : 544

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 the tropical and subtropical New World ( Sanborn & Heath 2014; 2017).

Quesada gigas is another of the large Trinidadian cicadas with body lengths up to 45 mm and wingspans of 120 mm having been reported ( Sanborn & Heath 2017). The head width across the eyes is narrower than pronotum and about as wide as the mesonotum, head distinctly triangular with anterior extension of postclypeus, lateral pronotum convergent anteriorly in dorsal view, lateral pronotal collar narrower laterally than dorsally, timbal covers recurve along posterior timbal cavity forming ribbon-like structure posterior to timbals with small triangular extension laterally exposing majority of timbal, male abdomen widest at segments 3 and 4, proximal wing venation ground color, and infuscation found only on the radial and radiomedial crossveins easily distinguish it from Majeorona aper . Fidicinoides descampsi can be distinguished by the stout body and the infuscation found along the ambient vein, distal apical cell veins, and connecting across all crossveins of the fore wings and hind wings. The song sounds like a steam whistle. Their ability to call at dusk is due to the endothermy exhibited by the species ( Sanborn et al. 1995). Davis (1944) reported emergence times for the species during February and March on Tobago.

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, expanding across South and Central America with records from 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 and Tobago, Uruguay, Venezuela, extending northward into the southern Texas in the United States ( Metcalf 1963a; Duffels & van der Laan 1985; Maccagnan & Martinelli 2011; Sanborn 2011b; 2013; 2014; 2018; 2019a; 2020b, d; Maccagnan et al. 2014; Monteiro et al. 2014; Sanborn & Heath 2014; Reis et al. 2015; Maccagnan et al. 2017; Oliveira et al. 2017). References for the species in Trinidad and or Tobago by Mathew (1875), Distant (1881a), Uhler (1892), Davis (1944), Maes (1998), Sanborn & Heath (2014), and Sanborn (2018) are provided with no specific locality information.

Material examined. “ Petit Valley / TRINIDAD / Station No. 1 / 10 June 1970 // T.E. Rogers /Coll.” one female ( FSCA); “ TRINIDAD / Talparo /V.24–VI.7.1990/ H.L. Dozier ” one male ( AFSC).