Central Texas Cicada bursting out of it's skin!

in #photography7 years ago

There has been a massive number of Cicadas this year in central Texas. If you’ve never seen a cicada nymph moult (shed their skin) and break out into the adult it’s quite an interesting sight, reminiscent of the alien bursting out of John Hurt’s chest in the original Alien movie.

Their call is really quite interesting-- you can hear some samples on the Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cicada

Here’s some pictures of one that was moulting on my back step, along with a bonus picture of one I found out by my front door recently.

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After it comes out, it expands it's wings over a period of time.

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Eventually the wings dry, it's color darkens and the wings fold back.

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All that's left on the step:

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We have these exoskeletons all over the place, on trees, on the side of your house, you name it.
Here's a few I just found:
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Oddly enough in almost the same place as the shell above there was another cicada emerging a few weeks ago:

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I also came across this dead cicada. I took a few pictures trying to show how shiny it really is:

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