Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Bug Blogging


  I'm running out of time and patience.  I've been failing to get a photo of a cicada coming out of it's shell.  I see the bugs climbing tree trunks at night, but so far, no bloggy goodness.
  In the morning there are shells all over the place.  I am being bug mocked.
  As the story goes, the adults lay eggs in the trees, the eggs fall to the ground, hatch and burrow down to the roots where they find a place to suck sap for 13-17 years.  One night, they dig out, emerging as extremely buggy looking bugs, climb something, come to a halt, break out the back in a really neat hump, flip, lunge and pull move, then hang until their wings pump up and harden and off they go to sing in the treetops, mate and lay eggs.
  The birds are eating them like mad and I even heard one scream last night as a screech owl got it.  White bird lime everywhere composed mainly of Cicada protein.
  Last night I brought one inside so I could see it.  Mine like a big Hackberry out front the best.  I hate to bring them in because they don't do as well inside.  I went to sleep.  It hatched and now I'm left with the common denominator- a Cicada shell.
  Somewhere in the house, a teenage Cicada is getting ready to scare the hell out of the Redhead.

UPDATE:  Found it!  A female.  (Now I'm a Cicada sexer)  Tossed her out the front door and she fired up her wings and hit the trail.
  

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