I was consumed from yesterday evening to this afternoon with an exciting project: witnessing a cicada molt!! Say hi to ‘Betsy the Cicada,’ a Neotibicen cicada (most likely; still trying to confirm) who dug herself up yesterday evening, after 4-5 years of living underground. I bugnapped her as she began to climb up a tree trunk, but don’t worry: she actually benefitted, by having shelter during the molting process, aka ecdysis—the most vulnerable time in a cicada’s life. (She is now an adult back in the wild—more on that later.)
At home, I transferred her to a ‘paper tree trunk’ (paper towel roll), but she climbed upwards so quickly and determinedly that I had to use a TP roll in conjunction/alternation with it to create an infinite trunk! She climbed for over 35 minutes in total.
These three were catadioptric shots. Stereovideos and more coming soon…
TAGS: insects > cicadas > Betsy the Cicada, cicada nymphs, Neotibicen
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