Scissor grinder
The scissor grinder is a cicada with a green body covered in fancy markings and an all-black tail end. Its loud song sounds like scissors being sharpened on a spinning stone. You can hear it in woods across the eastern USA.
How fast is it?
Fun facts
Its name comes from its sound, which is like scissors on a grinding wheel.
Its second name pruinosus means frosty in Latin.
Its group name Neotibicen means new flute player.
In a few places in Kansas and Oklahoma there is a rare pale kind that is much lighter in colour.
Most asked questions about Scissor grinder
?Why is it called a scissor grinder?
Because its song sounds like scissors being sharpened on a grinding wheel.
?What does the scissor grinder eat?
It drinks sap from trees through its straw-like mouth.
?Is a scissor grinder cicada dangerous?
No. Cicadas do not bite or sting people.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Neotibicen pruinosus
- Group
- True bugs and cicadas
- Family
- Cicadidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Hemiptera > Cicadidae
- Lives on
- North America
Where the facts come from
- Neotibicen pruinosus (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by xpda. CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.
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