More Terrarium Observations from Home

More Terrarium Observations from Home

2:30 pm - Back home and I was amazed to discover that the female Cicada observed earlier in the day was still ovipositing!! I watched it intently for a half hour. It stopped around 3 pm. It tried to fly away but only ended up at the bottom of the terrarium.

I examined it closely. It seemed to still have some spunk in it. I decided to mark the tip of its wing with red fingernail polish so that I could tell the specimen apart from the other females and to track how long it would take for it to expire.

When I put it back in the terrarium it started feeding on the Lilac branch. I wanted to hopefully witness the other females ovipositing. The male was feeding happily on the Lilac branch as well.

While I was observing their behavior, all-of-a-sudden a fine stream of Cicada pee came shooting out of the tip of the abdomen in a fine jet stream. I just witnesed the male Cicada peeing!! Shortly thereafter a different female did the same thing!! Oh well, I guess when you gotta go you gotta go!!

As I was observing the Cicadas, I did notice the darker female start to oviposit briefly. It seemed to me that perhaps it was testing the viability of the branch it wished to lay its eggs in? This is just a possible hypothesis based purely on observation alone.

6:00 pm - The female that I marked has been feeding for several hours. It managed to make its way to the same section of the Lilac branch where it laid eggs earlier in the day and started ovipositing again!! It only did this for a half hour though. I estimate that it must've laid at least 600 eggs!!

All the Cicadas including the male seemed to be alive and well by the time I turned in for the evening.