They are considered harmless to people, despite the fact that their high-pitched call may annoy some people. The adults of larger kinds of cicadas can be found on the trunks or branches of trees in summer. They are often wary and fly away when approached. Smaller kinds often live on low shrubs, or even on long grass. Cicadas are sometimes known as locusts in Australia, but that term is more correctly applied to certain migratory species of grasshopper.
Children have many names for the different kinds of cicadas.
Black Prince, Psaltoda plaga , and the Green Grocer or Yellow Monday, Cyclochila australasiae , are the best known. Cicadas are eaten in large quantities by birds. The song is a mating call produced by the males only. Each species has its own distinctive call and only attracts females of its own kind even though rather similar species may co-exist. Cicadas are the only insects to have developed such an effective and specialised means of producing sound.