Monday, August 17, 2015

Another cicada

My neighbor called me over to her porch today to see a freshly molted cicada. Its exoskeleton had just fallen off, and it was hanging upside down on a brick pedestal, drying its wings and its tender fleshy surface.

I think the photos below are easier to study when the bug is rotated 180 degrees. I also find the cicada less skin-crawly to look at at when the photos are sepia toned rather than full color, but then the three ruby ocelli (thanks, interwebs!) between the cicada's compound eyes don't look as much like blood-contaminated lymph sacs (which they aren't--they're eyes # 3, 4, and 5, if you count the compound eyes as one eye each).

Enjoy.




2 comments:

Linda said...

Thanks for sharing, I have always wondered what they looked like. I hear them here in Montreal, Canada, when it is very humid but here they stay well camouflaged and are usually in the trees on the bark so it is hard to see them. Great photos!

Liz Paley said...

Thanks Linda! I'd never looked at cicadas up close until recently. The camera helps show details that I can't see with eyes alone.