Late Morning Visit to St. Patrick Cemetery

Late Morning Visit to St. Patrick Cemetery

11:00 AM - After meeting the crew at Pine Ridge Cemetery, I decided before I headed home to check St. Patrick this morning. It's really unusual to get newly emerged Cicadas this time of day.

All the literature I have read seemed to indicate that the best time to find Cicadas was at night when the sun went down. This is obviously not the case however.

Today is no exception. I have discovered a newly emerged Cicada on a Maple tree bordering one of the many roadways of the cemetery. It's small so I conclude that it is T. canicularis.

I look around for others but only find signs of exuvia.

I do a wider search and find a live nymph crawling on an Oak tree in another part of the cemetery. I look at my watch and discover it's nearly noon!!

I decide to take this nymph home and conduct an experiment.

I have learned that a Cicada nymph will molt anywhere it can securely anchor it's legs. My little finger is no acception. Below are thumbnails showing this T. canicularis going through the complete molting process on my little finger.

More has been written on this subject in the Cicadas 101 section.

Note the end result as indicated in the very last thumbnail. This female Cicada actually has silver highlights with burgundy wing veins. A truly unusual morphology.

Enjoy.