When I was taking apart my tomato cage I found this cicada skin clinging to my hose. It is that time of year again. Check out this great shot N took of one that had just molted on the side of R's playhouse!
I don't like cicadas very much. We did not have them in northern Iowa where I grew up, nor in Florida where I went to college. My first real experience was when I moved to Maryland and I was touring a condo with a real estate agent who was quite afraid of insects. We came around a turn in the open-air steps leading up to the condo and suddenly there was just a pile of the empty skins under our feet, crunching with every step. (I think the condo association was trying to clean them out of the open-air hallway above but didn't quite finish the job. Normally they do not molt on the ground.) Annie, our real estate agent, tried hard to hold it together, but her obvious panic was not a good introduction to a very harmless insect.
Yes, the picture N took shows off the wings beautifully.
ReplyDeleteSo, I was sweeping the ton or two of soil that washed onto our patio during the last deluge, and I grabbed the broom quite low on the handle, swept hard, then turned it over to find a shell just like the one in your picture just inches from my face. I SCREAMED!! K came running in a panic. You're right, they are harmless, but NASTY looking when their empty shell surprises you...
ReplyDeleteEww. Sorry Ellie, that sounds awful!
ReplyDeleteI thought that we had them in Florida... I don't know, maybe not.
ReplyDeleteThing is you only see them every 7 years so sometimes you really have to know what to look for and where to look for it,
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