A Night Visit to St. Patrick Cemetery

A Night Visit to St. Patrick Cemetery

10:15 pm - I'm excited about Cicadas. This is my third time out today in hunting for them. Due to my great success in finding two Cicadas on the same tree at St. Patrick cemetery, I decided to try my luck at finding actual nymphs at night.

First I visited the same maple tree that I discovered the first Tibicen exuvium on the 24th. Then, I went to the ash tree that I discovered the two Cicadas on earlier this day. I didn't find anything on these trees.

Then I decided to try the ash tree that I discovered 2 nymph exuvia on as well as the crunched up nymphs and discovered a nymph slowly working it's way up the tree. I gently grabbed it and stuck it in a mason jar without the lid on.

I decided it was probably best to head home straight away because I didn't want the Cicada to molt in the jar. (This proved to not be a problem which I will discuss later).

I'd had my prize for the evening and went home to watch it molt and take some pictures.

When I got home, I got a huge thick lilac branch from my yard for the nymph to molt on. The nymph walked around it for a while and settled underneath and nothing happened for about 10 minutes.

The thumbnails below are a shortened time-sequence of photos I took while watching this nymph molt.

This nymph also displayed some unusual behaviors which are noted in the Noted Cicada Behaviors page.