Amphipsalta cingulata

Amphipsalta cingulata, the clapping cicada, is a species of cicada that is endemic to New Zealand.^[3][1]

Clapping cicada
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Hemiptera
Suborder:	Auchenorrhyncha
Family:	Cicadidae
Genus:	Amphipsalta
Species:	A. cingulata
Binomial name
Amphipsalta cingulata (Fabricius, 1775)[1]
Synonyms[2]
Tettigonia cingulata Fabricius, 1775 Melampsalta cingulata (Fabricius, 1775) Cicadetta cingulata (Fabricius, 1775)

Taxonomy

This species was first described in 1775 by Johann Christian Fabricius based on four specimens.^[4][2] Fabricius had been given the specimens by naturalist Sir Joseph Banks, who had collected them from New Zealand while on the voyage of the HMS Endeavour under then-Lieutenant James Cook. Banks and his assistants are recorded to have collected nine cicada specimens from New Zealand, though neither he nor Cook mention the insects in their diaries.^[2]

In 1921 the species was transferred to the genus Melampsalta and then to Cicadetta in 1963. In 1969 the species was reclassified into a new genus, Amphipsalta, by John Stweart Dugdale and Charles Alexander Fleming. The pair also designated the male first syntype from Banks' collection a lectotype.^[2]: 943

Distribution

This species is endemic to New Zealand and is found only in the North Island.^[5]