Can you hear me now?

I was just getting used to the late afternoon..early evening quiet from the froggy serenade when suddenly there was a new outburst of noise!  Starting just about five o'clock in the afternoon and running to just after dark, the cicadas let loose with their buzzing calls.  The males start their mating calls slowly at first with only one or two buzzing.  As the afternoon lapses into evening, more and more join in on the cacophony. The sound is almost deafening when there are twenty or thirty in the rose garden near the open windows.

Early this morning, I went out to see if I could find a newly emerged cicada.  Sunny, the pup, was with me and she actually found the newly emerged adult cicada.  As you most likely know, cicada nymphs spend most of their time beneath the ground.  They dig their way out and search for the nearest vertical thing they can find.  Up they climb and once they feel secure, their skin starts to split and the adult pushes its way out of the old nymph skins.  The dried skins can be found hanging on trees, bushes, the sides of the house and you if you stay in one place long enough!  The cicada doesn't care!  As long as there is something for it to cling to, it is happy!  Like I said, Sunny found the newly emerged cicada and I barely had enough time to grab her before she ate it!  I pulled her away and started my picture-taking project!  I wanted to get several closeups so I could view the eyes!  Did you know that cicadas have five eyes?? Yep!  There are the two large ones on either side of its head but if you look closely, there are three in a triangle shape in the middle of the head!  In the picture below, these eyes are glowing red from the flash!  This is one time that I was pleased that my subject had the dreaded "red-eye effect"!  This makes them easier to see!

The deafening "love" call of the cicada is made by two plates under the bottom of the critter.  There are two stiff  membranes called tymbals that when rubbed together create the loud noise we here coming from the treetops.  I did not wish to disturb the cicada as its wings were still a mite wet so you will just have to take my word about those tymbals!

On the nymph skin, it is easy to spot the long proboscis that the cicada uses to suck the juices from plants.  This is how they survive.  They do not bite like ants nor do they suck your blood like those vampire-like mosquitoes!  Cicadas do not have stingers like wasps..pretty much all they do is sing, eat plant goo and go about their cicada business.  I find them a bit fascinating.  Some evening, you should take the time to really study one and listen..listen to their calls!  Perhaps then you will come to know another small part of nature!  It is all about becoming aware of what is around you.  Things that most folks now-a-days pass by without ever seeing!