I saw this cicada on my patio Tuesday morning. Judging from the empty shell nearby (see below), I would surmise that he had just molted and was drying himself out. After 41 years of hearing cicada noises during the heat of the summer, I had never seen one up close and in person until this week. Kinda cool, isn't it?
Cicadas make a loud, insistent sound that is unique in the insect world. For me, those cicada songs define summer in the south. They are a constant soundtrack on sultry summer days; almost deafening at times. I even heard them on hot days in New England, where the sound never failed to transport me back home to Georgia in my mind.
This is the shell he crawled out of:
10 comments:
You've never seen a cicada before? Hmmm... I wouldn't have suspected that.
As for seeing them up close and personal, you get a real good view of them when they land on your horse for the first time and the horse freaks out...
I have NEVER seen one before either. I've heard them, but never seen them. Great pictures, but oh my gosh, freaks me right out. ACK!
The town I used to live in here on Long Island, Valley Stream, had the most cicadas of any place I've been. I sometimes had to leave my apartment just to get away from the noise. It sounded like there were people with chainsaws in the trees.
When they'd start to die off at the end of the season, I'd pass hundreds and hundreds of their dead bodies on the way to the train station.
We had a frog infestation one year, too. Hm. Perhaps we were being tested by God.
I see lots of the molted shells, but cicadas are mostly heard and not seen around these parts. I assume they spend most of their time hanging around in trees. That's where all the racket seems to be coming from.
If a big bug landed on the horse I was riding, I would freak out worse than the horse! My riding days were thirty years ago, but I don't recall ever dealing with anything except those pesky horseflies.
"Chainsaws in the trees" is a good description!
I guess I have seen a couple before but never realized that's what they actually were. I always pictured cicadas looking more like palmetto bugs. But I have to agree with some of your readers that I don't really think of cicadas as a Southern things. They get quite loud up in the Midwest during summer as well.
I've seen a few in my time, but mostly it's the shells that were everywhere. I used to collect them as a kid, and fill a gallon Ziplock bag. And then of course there was the one that died in the back window of my car in college. My British friends thought it was a huge fly. The funny thing is, none of us ever thought to throw it away.
I love the sound of cicadas. Not as big a fan of them dive-bombing and getting tangled in my hair.
Cool picture, you can always hear them before you can see them : )
Our next cicada attack comes in 2011, IIRC.
No, cicadas are icky. Just thinking about the ones I saw down in KY a few years back gives me the willies. Not a huge fan of big hard-shelled bugs. Thankfully I haven't seen any june bugs this year.
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