This is new to South Africans, the giant cricket as I called it for weeks. He isn't dead, we found him lying outside our door this morning - and Ro will now help him to his feet!

Cicadas (sɪˈkeɪdə/), alternatively spelled as Cicala.

Prominent eyes, though not especially large, their wings are well-developed, with conspicuous veins. Cicadas live in temperate-to-tropical climates where they are among the most-widely recognized of all insects, mainly due to their large size and unique noisy-to-some sound. Cicadas are often colloquially called locusts. Cicadas are related to leafhoppers and spittlebugs.

Cicadas have a long proboscis, under their head, which they insert into plant stems in order to feed on sap. It can be painful if they attempt to pierce a person's skin with it, but it is unlikely to cause other harm. They do, however, cause damage to several cultivated crops, shrubs, and trees, mainly in the form of scarring left on tree branches.

Many people around the world regularly eat cicadas. They are known to have been eaten in Greece as well as China, Malaysia, Burma, Latin America, and the Congo. Female cicadas are prized for being meatier. Shells of cicadas are employed in the traditional medicines of China, I am told. No mom, Semi's are not on the menu in this house - if I can help it.