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.

Quesada sp. Wolda 1977: 239.

Remarks. The type locality of Java is a mistake. The species is found over most of the New World (Sanborn & Heath 2014). The undetermined species of Quesada in Wolda (1977) is Q. gigas as it was found with Q. gigas and the other species of the genus has only been recorded from Brazil and Peru (Metcalf 1963a; Duffels & van der Laan 1985; Sanborn 2013).

Quesada gigas is the largest of the Panamanian 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.

This is a dry season cicada (Wolda 1989). The species calls at dawn, during the day and at dusk in Panama (Wolda 1993) similar to the pattern described for the species in Argentina (Sanborn et al. 1995). Males emerge earlier than females (Wolda & Ramos 1992). The song sounds like a whistle.

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; 2014; Maccagnan et al. 2014; 2017; Monteiro et al. 2014; Sanborn & Heath 2014; Reis et al. 2015; Oliveira et al. 2017). The species has been reported from Las Cumbres, 15 km north of Panama City (Wolda 1989), and Las Cumbres, Province of Panama, 150 m altitude in secondary growth forest (Wolda & Ramos 1992) in Panama.