80AcresOnline

Yesterday morning as I went outside, I saw a very small cicada on the kitchen storm door.   I thought immediately of one seen some years back (turned out to be four years) in the same place, photographed then and identified by Bill Reynolds, an expert on cicadas at BugGuide.net.  First I went back inside and got the camera, then photographed it, then went to BugGuide to compare…and sure enough, it’s the same critter.  Length about 1/2 inch (not counting wings.)

Pacarina puella  Little Mesquite cicada

This is a much better picture than the one from June 8, 2013, when it was nearly dark and lightening the image was by histogram adjustment, not “one stop photo fix” as above:

I’d like to find this little cicada on something other than manmade material–although there are a few mesquite trees around (and a “mesquite flat” east of town)  we don’t have many on our place, and none in the back yard.  So what else does this cicada inhabit and what use does it make of it?  I have no idea, but if I see it on a tree (we have three species of oak in the yard, two species of maple, native ash, pecan, soapberry, redbud, roughleaf dogwood and smaller woody plants including non-native Rose of Sharon) I’ll try to get a picture and then figure out if that’s just a resting place or…whatever.