both Brazil and Japan had loud cicadas and I miss them so much... Germany is always so quiet...

everybody knows how anime cidadas sound and it's just like that irl, but there's many other types. I'll try to find the type I grew up with, I liked to sing with them, their little belting tune...

Quesada gigas! (probably) After 0:55 here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tU1gRDGSVmE

they sound like they do a little warmup tentatively before going all out and blowing your timpani it's adorable

another recording:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wEq8X5hAhY

some more Brazilian cicadas:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXAIpZpre4U

this thread brought to you by I found this pretty little friend in my balcony and was surprised to find out it's an instar of Nezara viridula and Wikipedia says they have a mating call at 100Hz and I am frustrated at the lack of recordings

also this ladybug that slept with me on my sword and came all the way home with me chilling on the tsuba

Yes they're a harlequin, yes they're invasive I don't care ok? it's not *their* fault they're invasive, and it's not like there's any stopping of their adaptation here at this point, and anyway people talk of them outcompeting natives as if people hadn't killed 80% of flying insects within living memory, those natives were going down one way or another weren't they. we'll be lucky to have *any* insect ecosystem endure long enough to reach the era when humans finally proscribe pesticides, like I'm not saying protecting ecosystems from invasives is already futile and I take great pains to keep native(ish) plants in my garden but we're going to have to rethink our notions of invasiveness as the devastation progresses, won't we. Asian ladybugs can have a little ride on my Japanese white oak sword, as a treat

my definition of "native-ish" is: From Ireland/England down to Mediterranean and east to Caucasus or so is all game, as long as they're not listed as invasives (I don't think I ever found a flower that is). I still give preference to the local biome specifically when shopping, but when a native-ish flower is good for the bees and manages to endure the climate (e.g. Mediterranean herbs) I happily keep them.

every so often there's an American, Asian or Australian plant somehow in my balcony like little Heliotropum arborescens here. I don't have the heart to kill plants so I take care of them anyway (unless listed as invasive, in which caee they are moved to indoor houseplants; if they can survive in my living room they're my housemates).

My environment is controlled enough that it would be easy to identify excesses. The only plant I ever have had problems with is little robin which is a native, but he takes way too much space from the others, not in a productive way like the clover either, and the flowers, while cute, aren't especially good for my bees. I cut them down in size often, and when they sprout near other plants they outcompete, I pull them out—the only plant I ever "weed"—but I leave them in the dirt pile as a last chance to establish themselves. I also always reserve at least a few pots where the geraniums can have their own living space in peace, and I water them and everything; I want to keep up biodiv, not eradicate a species. My rule is that if I'm not using a pot for anything I can't complain if anybody settle there, and little robin proven adept at flowering the little bits and prices of potting mix left abandoned after I failed one species or another. I like to think they keep the soil life going on for me in the meantime. Some of these abandoned pots end up with quite pretty, foresty foliage, like the one down there tanned by the recent heatwaves