cicada molting
When I went to bed last night after 3am, Serena was outside barking at something. I told her to hush, but she kept at it. I figured she'd stop soon. A few hours later I woke up, and she was still barking, or again barking. So I put on shoes and went outside to check.
She was chewing on something. Uh-oh. I fetched a flashlight. She was sniffing at a cicada shell on the ground. Maybe she ate a cicada? But wouldn't that be buzzy and unpalatable? She started barking at something else in the same area. On a thick blade/root of grass, were another 2 cicadas... or rather one cicada and one shell. I didn't want her to eat that one too, so I detached and carried the blade of grass to a safer place (on top of the trash bin) out of Serena's reach. The cicada was motionless the whole time.
I petted Serena to calm her down, and went back inside. Before I even got back to bed, she was barking again, in a different part of the yard. I opened the window and told her to hush. She ignored me. I turned the volume up on the sound machine, though her bark being a higher pitched noise, it didn't help much to cover it up, and went back to sleep. At least her bark is quieter than Zorro's and doesn't carry as far.
Later after getting up, I checked the top of the trash bin. The live cicada was gone; presumably it made a safe get-away.
I got to thinking - the live cicada had been much larger than the empty shell. Yet it must have just molted last night from that same shell. How does that work? I wondered why the one I moved hadn't simply flown away. Are insects in a stupor state after molting, making them easy prey?
Here is a Cicada Molting video. The part about 2 minutes in where the wings start to unfurl & extend is fascinating.
This animated gif shows the same process, though with much less detail.
Cicada Molting/Eclosing Process - this page describes each step of the process. It explains why a just-molted bug might not be as unpalatable as I had imagined.
A comment on the same page mentions that nymphs begin to emerge from the ground to molt, when the soil reaches a certain temperature. So maybe many nymphs emerge around the same time. I sure hope Serena didn't eat a whole bunch more. I like hearing the buzz of adult cicadas!
I still plan to post some cicada and katydid sounds that I recorded.
I often hear cicadas up in the trees in my yard, but not katydids. Katydids must prefer more wooded areas. I noticed several times while driving home from work at night, that I could hear katydids singing most of the way along the ride home, from the parking lot at work and along the main streets. But as I near my neighborhood, the katydid sounds decrease, until finally there are none at all to be heard. There are only the cricket and other night-time insect sounds. In spite of there being a good amount of trees around here.
She was chewing on something. Uh-oh. I fetched a flashlight. She was sniffing at a cicada shell on the ground. Maybe she ate a cicada? But wouldn't that be buzzy and unpalatable? She started barking at something else in the same area. On a thick blade/root of grass, were another 2 cicadas... or rather one cicada and one shell. I didn't want her to eat that one too, so I detached and carried the blade of grass to a safer place (on top of the trash bin) out of Serena's reach. The cicada was motionless the whole time.
I petted Serena to calm her down, and went back inside. Before I even got back to bed, she was barking again, in a different part of the yard. I opened the window and told her to hush. She ignored me. I turned the volume up on the sound machine, though her bark being a higher pitched noise, it didn't help much to cover it up, and went back to sleep. At least her bark is quieter than Zorro's and doesn't carry as far.
Later after getting up, I checked the top of the trash bin. The live cicada was gone; presumably it made a safe get-away.
I got to thinking - the live cicada had been much larger than the empty shell. Yet it must have just molted last night from that same shell. How does that work? I wondered why the one I moved hadn't simply flown away. Are insects in a stupor state after molting, making them easy prey?
Here is a Cicada Molting video. The part about 2 minutes in where the wings start to unfurl & extend is fascinating.
This animated gif shows the same process, though with much less detail.
Cicada Molting/Eclosing Process - this page describes each step of the process. It explains why a just-molted bug might not be as unpalatable as I had imagined.
"The Soft and Chewy Cicada Teneral Stage, Yumm!!"
The teneral stage is that stage in a Cicada's development where the Cicada has just finished carrying out it's molting process but it is still relatively soft. Like the consistancy of a newly molted soft-shelled crab. ... It's at this stage where the Cicada is most vulnerable.
A comment on the same page mentions that nymphs begin to emerge from the ground to molt, when the soil reaches a certain temperature. So maybe many nymphs emerge around the same time. I sure hope Serena didn't eat a whole bunch more. I like hearing the buzz of adult cicadas!
I still plan to post some cicada and katydid sounds that I recorded.
I often hear cicadas up in the trees in my yard, but not katydids. Katydids must prefer more wooded areas. I noticed several times while driving home from work at night, that I could hear katydids singing most of the way along the ride home, from the parking lot at work and along the main streets. But as I near my neighborhood, the katydid sounds decrease, until finally there are none at all to be heard. There are only the cricket and other night-time insect sounds. In spite of there being a good amount of trees around here.