Not Much Happening - Lousy Weather

Not Much Happening - Lousy Weather

I decided to stay home today because of the lousy weather outside. This gave me some time to study the three Tibicen lyricen specimens that I have found so far. The T. lyricen var. englehardti female is really darkening up now but I want to take some more close up shots of it but I want to wait for the sun to shine so that I can take some shots of the specimen in full sunlight but that won't be happening for a while if this weather keeps up. I currently have them in a terrarium that I purchased last year on ebay. It's basically an octagon fish tank with some dirt and charcoal and stones on the bottom. Then I have a branch from a lilac bush in a jar of water. The Cicadas seem to be happily feeding. I plan on releasing these specimens. I hope they last long. But before I do that I want to document by photographing them to note any difference in morphology in the event I find other Cicadas to compare them to.

Anyway, as promised, I have snapped another ventral view shot for you to have a look at with regards to T. lyricen pruinosity development that I talked about yesterday. Compare the shot to the left with the ventral shot I took last night. This is just after 12 hours. As you can see, the white waxy stuff is really starting to develop. There is still a pinkish hue and the operculum (oh-per-kew-lum) is just starting to develop the pruinosity at it's edges. The operculum are the bony plates you can see on the abdomen. These cover the male Cicada's timbals which it uses to make sounds. Hopefully, over time the pruinosity will increase. Note the pinkish hue on the sternites. These will turn completely white. More tomorrow.