Robust cicada: The one that sings 'min-min'

Just as midsummer begins to ease, another cicada takes over — and its name carries its own song: "min-min" in Japanese, so we call it the robust cicada. Its urgent, bright "min-min" call is one of the most recognisable cicada songs of late summer and early autumn. Let's meet it.

Its body and its song

The robust cicada is a signature cicada of Japan's late summer. It appears a little later than the large brown cicada and prefers to sing from trees at the forest edge. Its call has a quick, bright rhythm that sounds as if it is shouting its own name. It sings rather like someone pressing an empty drinks can: the male's abdominal drum plates buckle hundreds of times a second, and the hollow body acts like a loudspeaker, carrying the sound a hundred metres.

Where it lives and what it eats

Like nearly all cicadas, its nymphs spend years underground sipping root sap, waiting for their own summer. At the end of summer it climbs out, moults, and becomes an adult that sings loudly in the woodland. The adults feed on tree sap and live a few weeks, using their song to attract females.

A note for grown-ups

You could listen together with a child at dusk: "Was that the 'min-min' one?" Learning to tell cicadas apart by ear is even more fun than by eye — and it needs patience and focus. Once you can hear the differences, you are reading the forest's own seasonal signals.