Yesterday while exiting the house, my family and I encountered a very strange looking bug. It was attached to a vertical support of the porch, and it seemed to be a beetle-esque little creature with a strange (rather disturbing looking) growth on its back. I of course returned to the house to get my sketchbook, and when I returned I found the "growth" to be the actual bug itself, which was in the process of evolving or emerging from its hard exterior shell. The bug sat there for hours, as it must have been adjusting and allowing its wings to shake out and dry out. I did some drawings of the little guy, and then stole his shell, since I figured he wouldn't need it.
Following are some sketchbook studies of the hatching in red pencil, and some more detailed and closer studies of the shell.
After some research today, the bug was found to be a
cicada.
This is sort of what it looked like when we found it, except I couldn't see the eyes.
This is my photo of the cicada on its empty exoskeleton.
I also found this animation on wikipedia, depicting the event we experienced.
3 comments:
Jeff,
Haha, this is pretty neat. You'd never seen a cicada before? They're the musicians behind the token sound of summer: that rattle/hiss noise you hear coming from the trees during July/August midday heat.
The drawings are great. =)
During PreCollege Megan Chin found one of these guys chilling out in the high grass in the Commons,
http://bexar-tx.tamu.edu/IPM/Pest%20of%20the%20Month/2007/true_katydid%20TAMU%20Curt%20Wms.jpg
We all got to hold him the rest of the afternoon. He was awesome. We named him Logan. He was the most well behaved grasshoppers around.
Oh no, haha I knew about cicadas and their noise, and actually I was in DC in 2004 (I think) when the periodic swarm happened. Then they all die within days and their carcasses are all over the ground.
So I'd even seen them before when I was about 14 or 15, but I wasn't aware that they molted an initial shell like that, didn't remember them being quite this large or really paid any close attention to their detail.
I suppose at the time their sheer numbers and mass death were more preoccupying.
The katydid is pretty cool. I think I'd consider them on the same level with the cicada and maybe like a praying mantis. The sort of almost mythical insect that you hear about, or hear noise from, but rarely actually encounter one.
Good luck for us, I suppose!
I was glad I got some photos/drawings and a souvenir.
cicadas are gross, &huge, like enormous flies. i'm glad they're nice &i never have to see them up close unless they're dead.
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