Aug 3, 2007

What Wonder...

There aren't many, if any, cicadas where I live. I, therefore, can only imagine what it must be like to watch one of the hulking larvae dig its way out of the earth and take root on a wall, fence, or tree trunk. Then, as if by magic, it begins to crack open, and slowly, oh so slowly, an ethereal, translucent creature emerges from it. What wonder.

Then that winged creature begins to harden, get all crunchy, and in no time is chirping up such a racket that you find yourself reaching for the flyswatter. What disillusionment.

Thanks for the photos, Elizabeth.













11 comments:

Nonexistant Black Feather said...

When I was little, I didn't know what those cicada casings were... but they always meant the end of me playing outside. "mommy, there's a bug! ahh!"

Anonymous said...

Mmmmm! Crunchy & creamy too!

Our cat (and all the dogs in town) love to eat them while they are soft or as they just come out of the earth. My cat uses her radar ears, then walks over to that spot on the lawn, and crunch, crunch, crunch... lick lips, lick lips, lick lips...

Jade said...

I never saw them in Florida, but they're everywhere out in Oklahoma (where we just moved to).

Anonymous said...

I actually enjoy the sound of cicadas on a summer evening. Can't get to sleep without hearing them, in fact!

Not too many days ago, my 4-year-old son had his first encounter with a cicada. He was poking around in my flowerpots with a stick (like he was told not to, the little imp...) and annoyed one that had decided to sleep in there. It started raising a racket, and he screamed like a little girl. He thought he'd come across a rattlesnake! It took five minutes to get him to calm down, and even after finding the bug and showing it to him, he wouldn't come near it without grabbing my big wooden spoon for "protection"... *LOL*

--TwoDragons

Anonymous said...

I used to live in Chicago, where we had the 17 year cicadas. For a long time, there would be little holes in the ground. Then one day.....they came. They were EVERYWHERE. Trees especially. The buggies didn't seem to do anything, just kind of sat there and were loud. As kids we used to grab them by the wings and they would shake and freak out. We even found an albino one once. It was fun/gross/creepy. Not sure which was more prevalent - the novelty of the bugs or the general creepiness of the bugs.

Anonymous said...

Cicadas from Rome are requesting censorship for this obscene picture. I'm serious, they have just stopped doing noise when i entered this site.

Christina Acker said...

That looks pretty cool but it still gives me the heebiejeebies...

Arachnophile said...

WHAT amaxing color!


We don't have anything nearly this beautiful or delicate where I am.


Honestly, I do think the colors of the emerged cic. is absol. AMAZ!

The Art Corner said...

My brother's cat grabbed one in the kitchen. The cat was little; the bug was huge--THEN it started to BUZZ! The cat freaked, but refused to drop the bug!

Anonymous said...

i almost steped in 1 once ...

and then it started buzzing i guess i kinda touched it or something.(good thing too. they look kinda squishy)

Anonymous said...

I went to Borneo 5 years ago, and in the mostly-open-air airport at Pangkalan Bun, some Giant Cicadas had gotten themselves inside the terminal building and couldn't find their way out. Instead of trying to guide them to the opening, this local guy just picked them up, and they'd start to screech! It was pretty funny, these things wriggling and screeching unholy terror until he'd walk outside and let 'em go. Beautiful bugs though - not Ugly Overload!