New Forest Cicada

New Forest Cicada (Cicadetta montana) © Jaroslav Maly

Buglife experts and volunteers joined forces with wildlife sound recorders and Southampton University to search for the New Forest Cicada. The project combined more traditional entomological survey methods, high-tech sound recording equipment and a smartphone app to search for this mysterious insect.

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Quick Facts:

  • Name of Project: New Forest Cicada
  • Duration of Project: 2013
  • Location of Project: New Forest
  • Species benefitted from Project: New Forest Cicada (Cicadetta montana)

The New Forest Cicada is the only native cicada to live in the UK and one of the largest insects in the country, with a length of up to 3cm long. The New Forest Cicada has distinctive clear wings and stripy abdomen. It is classified as Endangered in the UK and is UK Biodiversity Action Plan species.

During May to July, it sings with a very characteristic high-pitched song, which is at the limits of human hearing, and is particularly difficult for most adults to hear. Sightings of the cicada within the New Forest date back to 1812, but the last confirmed sighting was in the early 1990’s. The cicada has always been hard to find as it spends much of its life underground as a nymph, taking up to 8 years to mature and hatch. Once hatched the cicada is often high up in the trees out of sight- that is why detecting it singing is one the most effective methods of finding it.

Although the New Forest Cicada has never been common in the UK its recent disappearance is thought to be linked to the loss of its favoured habitat through altered grazing regimes. It is also possible that it remains undiscovered in other forests in the south of the UK.

In 2013, Southampton University launched the UK’s first smartphone app that was used by the general public to detect and recognise the song of the New Forest cicada. Finding the New Forest cicada will allow experts to target habitat management to aid the conservation of this species.

How can you stay involved?

The app is very simple to use. It records a 30 second survey using the smartphone’s microphone, and looks for the particular frequencies and sound patterns that characterise the cicada’s song. If it thinks a cicada might have been heard, it prompts the user to upload the recording, so that it can be analysed in more detail. We encourage people to use the app along paths, tracks and clearing such as picnic areas as these often provide ideal habitat for the Cicada.

The app is available for both iPhone and Android smartphones and is available on the iTunes and Google Play app stores by searching for ‘Cicada Hunt’. If anyone thinks they have seen or heard a New Forest Cicada, either recently or historically please contact Buglife at [email protected].

New Forest Cicada (Cicadetta montana) © Jaroslav Maly