As the football world cup began in the United States, Canada and Mexico this year, in one part of India, an insect emerged, as it does, every four years, in sync with the sporting event. However, this year, it was found beyond its typical home range. Aptly named the World Cup cicada, the insect, Chremistica ribhoi, has been recorded in Meghalaya in Northeast India. This year though it was spotted in the neighbouring state of Assam during a field assessment around the Rani Reserve Forest conducted by wildlife biologist Pulakeswar Basumatary, with Langtuk Terang, Assistant Professor, Pragjyotish College, Mann Kumar Thapa, a research scholar at Royal Global University, M.Sc. student Lakhinandan Dutta and butterfly researcher Rajat Joshi. Basumatary told Mongabay-India, “Until now, Chremistica ribhoi was known only from Saiden village and Lailad, near Nongkhyllem Wildlife Sanctuary in Meghalaya’s Ri-Bhoi district. The 2026 sighting across the Rani-Garbhanga-Basistha Reserve Forest is the first record of the species in Assam, and a real extension of its known range.” However, while it has been scientifically recorded now, the local communities always knew of the cicada in Assam. “The Rabha community of Satargaon, in the Rani area (of Assam), say they had been seeing this cicada before the year 2000. That’s earlier than the first scientific record from Meghalaya. The species was almost certainly always here, just undocumented,” said Basumatary. Periodical cicadas are among nature’s most precise timekeepers. Their mass emergence is triggered largely by soil temperature and humidity cues built up over years underground.…This article was originally published on Mongabay
