Never Stop

  Both my daughter and youngest son keep after me to never stop.  "You have to keep the brain working, Mom.  Never stop learning."  So, as feeble as the brain feels at times, I try.  This learning thing gets harder with each year added to my age.  But...I try.  That explains my sudden fascination with old clocks...I am learning clock repair.  It also explains my annual clue hunt...I create enigmas for others to solve.  And, while we are about it, this need for learning explains my nightly browsing of the Internet.  I am learning.  I read, explore and try to remember something new each night.  

  This evening on my last walk with the old dog, I came across an interesting critter.  A cicada was belly-up in the grass.  Its little legs were wildly thrashing about as if it could not right itself.  The sight reminded me of a turtle that had been flipped upside down.  So, I flipped the cicada over and thought it would take flight.  Nope, the thing started thrashing about until it was back belly-up.  Hmmm, ok, so maybe I should check this critter a bit closer.  This is when it dawned on me that obviously, the critter was in its final moments on this earth.  Tiny ants were infesting the cicada.  Well, nature must take its course.  

  When photographing the bug, the white belly stood out.  It seemed rather unusual since most of the cicadas around here have dark undersides.  The cicada had met its demise and was now being eaten by myriads of ants.  Armed with the photographs, it was time to do that learning.  What type of cicada was this and why had it died??  And, yeah, I do photograph dead  bugs at times.

  My first search brought up a rather unsettling thought.  It seems there is a fungus that stays dormant until cicadas emerge from underground.  The spores from the fungus immediately attack an unsuspecting cicada and attach themselves to the critter.  Then, it starts eating the bug from the inside.  I thought perhaps this was what caused the white underside of my critter.  I read further and found that as the fungus munches the inside of the cicada, it creates spores.  Once it completely obliterates the inner part of the critter, the abdomen bursts and the still live cicada shakes spores out as it flies.  The poor critter is literally "planting" the very thing that killed it.  The cicada dies and the fungus lives on to infest other cicadas.  Well, my cicada was intact so this could not be the cause of its death and there was no mention of the fungus being on the outside of the body.  Perhaps this was not right at all.  Learning is hard at times....

  So, a bit more research was done.  This time, the search was for "white-bellied cicadas" and there it was!  The cicada was not infested with some weird, gut-eating mold but was merely a cicada with a white  belly that had lived its life to its entirety.  It seems that my cicada was actually a Swamp Cicada and is often found closer to the ground than other cicadas.  While most prefer to be treetop songsters, the Swamp Cicada will serenade from low branches.  Also, it is sometimes known as Morning Cicada due to its habit of singing from dawn until noon then quietly resting the afternoon away.  

  My learning for the evening has made me more curious about these cicadas.  The morning hikes with the old dog will now find me scanning the low-hanging branches and listening for the telltale buzzing of this neat insect!  Never stop learning!