It's cicada time again at Roseholme Cottage (and the neighborhood). It's an off year for them, so just a skeleton guard of reserve forces is out, occasionally sputtering into silence for a heat-shocked minute or two until, oppressed by the silence, one lone fellow sings out, "Hey, baby, baby, baby, yeah, YOOOOOOOO!!!" and the rest join in again.
Twice now, I've gone outside in the morning to discover an empty husk clinging to the foundation while nearby, the new-freed adult is waiting for his wings to set, patiently immobile, almost done. Both time, they have flown, buzzing, right over my shoulder when I got too near.
Naturally, I'm starting a new collection of empties, those two and two more found nearby:
I'm gathering my forces! Today the window ledge, tomorrow-- Who knows. The sky's the limit, at least for the few, hot, cicada-haunted weeks as they do their duty and produce a new generation to haunt underground for years, quietly feeding until that day when the heat and time elapsed combine to produce the irresistible itch to climb up and up towards the light, to molt, climb higher, and yell their fool heads off, muting their on ear while they sing.
Ugly bugs or silly, romantic trolls? Possibly both. I continue to like them, singing the song of summertime.
8 comments:
The ones you are seeing now are "annual" cicadas, the "periodical" cicadas have either a 13 year or 17 year cycle and look quite different. They are generally smaller and have red eyes. Check out the Wikipedia page for all of that info and more, plus a nifty time-lapse video of an annual cicada molting.
Aaron - the Indiana gunshow ammo guy.
Wouldn't be summer w/o their song. :)
If you like Cicadas, you should check out the Cicada Hawk: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sphecius_speciosus
It's basically a wasp big enough to fly an immobilized Cicada back to its nest. You can also find it by googling "giant yellowjacket" on your smartphone after spotting one in the wild and wondering if you should be calling in the Air Force.
I admit the cicadas, inasmuch as they are a symbol of the seemingly-endless summers here, wear on me after a while. They're one of those sounds that would drive me bonkers if I had to listen to it too much.
That said, one of the funnier occurrences in a field lab I taught were several students finding as many of the shed cases as they could and quickly and stealthily hanging them on the back of another, totally oblivious, student.
Here in Jacksonville, we don't have many cicada because the frogs ate them all. Those frogs are loud. I have to raise my voice
to tell a joke when we're having a bourbon at the patio bar.
+1 on Tango Juliet- But I can do without the 17 year scourge...
So these insects reproduce with a "Cicadian" rhythm?
Remmy the Chicken Dog assumes all things that fly are birds. This is the most wonderful time of he year to be a Pointer- Cicadas and Bird season.
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