The earliest fossils of cicadas more closely related to Cicadidae than to Tettigarctidae date to the Jurassic period.

The morphology of well preserved stem cicadids from mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber from Myanmar suggests that unlike many modern cicadas, they were either silent or only made quiet sounds.

[3] Cicadas are large insects characterized by their membranous wings, triangular-formation of three ocelli on the top of their heads, and their short, bristle-like antennae.

One member of this family, Brevisana brevis, the "shrill thorntree cicada", is the loudest insect in the world, able to produce a song that exceeds 100 decibels.

This superfamily is in the suborder Auchenorrhyncha, containing cicadas, hoppers, and relatives, within the order Hemiptera, the true bugs.