Masked Devil

Cyclochila australasiae - Blue Mountains, Australia

 

These beauties spend a number of years underground and then only have a few weeks to live above ground.

 

The males flex their "tymbals" (organs in their abdomens) to attract a mate.

 

This is a bumper year for Masked Devils - on my bushwalks (the Australian term for hiking) I have seen them whizzing through the air and landing in a nearby bush or at the ground near my feet.

 

The noise was earsplitting as I tried to take this photo.

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Taxonomy

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Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Arthropoda

Subphylum: Hexapoda

Class: Insecta

Subclass: Pterygota

Order: Hemiptera

Suborder: Auchenorrhyncha

Infraorder: Cicadomorpha

Superfamily: Cicadoidea

Family: Cicadidae

Subfamily: Cicadinae

Tribe: Cyclochilini

Genus: Cyclochila

Species: Cyclochila australasiae

Done