my answer doesn't really help you , but I've found the natural hair colour works pretty well as is.
Add some legs and a hot spot etc, plus some speckles with a dark pen can all enhance the overall look.

post a pic after?

enjoy

Clark Reid, when describing how to try to tie one of his deer hair cicadas, says - 'don't try it, just buy one.'   

My 10 year old got given a great book on his 10th Birthday last week.
It shows 13 separate species of native cicada in NZ!


cheers

"Which New Zealand Insect"  Andrew Crowe.
publish by Penguin
Part of a series this guys has done, its pretty darn good.  My boy has raised a couple of frogs, fish, wetas, crickets and spiders.  we got terrariums all over the house....

All photos in the book are livesize, or at least magnified and dimms are given.
Fascinating array of Natives, but the freshwater section is not heavily populated.  Caddis is well covered along with beetles and boatmen etc.  19 pages of moths. who knew?

My comment to Sako was meant to be a little more helpful in that you could tie up pretty much any colour, just get shape looking  terrestrial.  if you consider grasshoppers & crickets then you could well throw plenty of colour on the fly to imitate all of the above. 
cheers

Thanks Nomads.  Will have a look for that book.  Probably won't help with catching fish but it's interesting to know more about the natural world that's involved.  Profile and then colour for cicadas but also for heavily fished areas something they haven't seen before can make all the difference.  That is something different from the current commercial favourites.

Nice one.
Look for the thickest fibres you can as you want them to be hollow, and have as much air in them as possible.
Sorry if I'm telling you something you already know!
I've not had huge success with the bouyancy of many local deer hair varieties when compared to elk for example.  but huge satisfaction from using skins and feathers from harvested animals tho.

lets see it when you are done!
enjoy

great stuff fella, look froward to hearing about the first take. although you'd better be quick, southerly coming through....
I had a day full of rainbows on Easter Monday and exactly half went for a cicada/royal wulf/ hopper/attractor combo fly with legs and foam.  weird beast but had all the elements needed that day.

I'm starting re-loading this winter for the first time. might give you a dial....

Anyone tell why we put the crystal or midge flash on the top of the deer hair.Tied this on the side just before putting on the rubber legs.Been making the body with a variety of matrials but the peacock Glister certainly seems be attractive.

Some times I wonder if some of our flies are made for show rather than performance.Accept the cicada has a sparkle but after thinking about it even Gods best imitation from Clark Reid got me thinking.Roll on December.My next trick is a mod of the PNT with input from a South African tyer called the Zak nymph. Quite a neat trick to replicate the gills.