In August, Satoshi Tsuge, a fourth-year elementary school student at the Faculty of Education, Okayama University, was taking a cicada at Urayasu Comprehensive Park in Minami-ku, Okayama City, and found an orange cicada on the trunk of a cherry tree.After being appraised by an expert familiar with the Kurashiki Museum of Natural History in Okayama Prefecture and cicadas, it was found to be an extremely rare mutation in the bear zemi, and a report was published in the newsletter of the Japanese cicadas.
According to Okayama University, Mr. Tsuge brought it to the Kurashiki Museum of Natural History for appraisal the day after he discovered it.An appraisal by the Kurashiki Museum of Natural History revealed that it was a male bear zemi due to its morphological characteristics.Since the body color is significantly different from normal black, when we asked a cicada expert to re-evaluate, it is an extremely rare mutation, and there is no known case in the past where the body color changed so significantly. I also understood.
The specimen was donated to the Kurashiki Museum of Natural History and has been exhibited in the insect corner of the 13rd exhibition room from the 3th.In a press release held at the Kurashiki Museum of Natural History, Mr. Tsushita said, "It was a very mysterious cicada, so I was very surprised when I found it."
Kumazemi is an adult with a body length of 60 to 70 mm.The body is black and the male has an orange abdominal flap on the abdomen.It is the second largest cicada from Japan after Yaeyama Mazemi, and inhabits lowlands and low mountains in warm regions, and can also be found in urban parks and roadside trees.
