Quesada gigas ( Olivier, 1790 )

Sanborn, Allen F., 2019, The cicadas (Hemiptera: Cicadidae) of Bolivia including the descriptions of fifteen new species, the resurrection of one genus and two species, seven new combinations, six new synonymies, and twenty-eight new records, Zootaxa 4655 (1), pp. 1-104 : 46

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 New World ( Sanborn & Heath 2014).

Quesada gigas is one of the largest of Bolivian cicadas with body lengths up to 45 mm and wingspans of 120 mm reported ( Sanborn & Heath 2017). The body is brown marked with piceous. The male abdomen is widest at segments 3 and 4, male timbal covers recurve along the posterior timbal cavity forming a ribbon-like structure posterior to the timbals with a small triangular extension laterally. The animals sing at and dawn and dusk with a pure-tone song that sounds like a whistle. The species is endothermic ( Sanborn et al. 1995b) to permit activity without access to solar radiation.

DISTRIBUTION. The 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, 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 & Tobago, Uruguay, Venezuela, extending to the southern United States ( Metcalf 1963a; Duffels & van der Laan 1985; Maccagnan & Martinelli 2011; Sanborn 2011b; 2013; 2014a; 2018c; Maccagnan et al. 2014; 2017; Monteiro et al. 2014; Sanborn & Heath 2014; Reis et al. 2015; Oliveira et al. 2017).

MATERIAL EXAMINED. “ BOLIVIA, STA. / CRUZ, Caranda / 6317Bc / 29–XI–1977 // C.R. Ward, R. Noya / & H. Serrate a luz ” one female ( BYUC); “ BOLIVIA: Prov. Andrés Ibáñez / Dept. de Santa Cruz, 1,369 ft. / Potrerillos del Guenda / W. of Santa Cruz // Dec. 13/15, 2009 at MV & BL / S-17.67089º / W-63.45761º / N.J. Smith, A.J. Gilbert, & / J. Aramayo Bejarano ” one female ( UCDC); “ BOLIVIA: Sta. Cruz, / Ichilo, Buena Vista / 2 Oct 1994, 400m. / R. Ward, m. v. light ” one male ( CMNH); “ Prov. del Sara / Bolivia, 450 m. / J. Steinbach ” // Carn. Mus. / Acc. 6443.” four males and one female ( CMNH); “ BOLIVIA: Santa Cruz, 3.7 km / SSE Buena Vista, Hotel Flora / & Fauna Hotel , 430m, 14–19–X– / 2000, coll. M.C. Thomas / tropical transition forest ” one male ( AFSC); “ Bolivia / Santa Cruz XII–90 / G. Tognan ” one male ( AFSC).