The ecdysis (molting) of Betsy the Cicada!… 2 minutes after the crack appeared in our previous episode, it had widened as shown, with the fresh green of the adult peeking out.
6 minutes after that (2nd pic), you can see the eyes no longer look black, as they have been pulled back from the nymph exoskeleton and are temporarily hidden (what was it like for the nymph to have to look through that layer the whole time?). During this process, Betsy was bending her head up and down, contracting and expanding the space between that horizontal green band (the pronotal collar) and the tan/brown area beneath it (the mesonotum). She also vibrated her upper body, kind of like shivering.
Finally, another minute after that (3rd pic; 9 minutes since the first crack), you can see the adult cicada eyes about to be pulled free!—ooo, don’t scratch them! (To be continued…)
1st and 3rd shots here are catadioptric; 2nd was sequential.
TAGS: insects > cicadas > Betsy the Cicada, cicada ecdysis, cicada nymphs, Neotibicen; ecdysis
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