Between this photo and the previous, it looks like Betsy has stood up in her nymph-shell battle chariot, pointed, and shouted “Attack!” Especially if you look at it sideways (not in 3D, sorry), it makes me think of some bio-mechanical personal tank or something (complete with wires sticking out), perhaps reminiscent of Darth Maul’s robo-spider-legs in The Clone Wars, if anyone knows that reference?

See the zoom-in video here to appreciate some fine details and differences between the imago (adult) and nymph, including:

• Clypeus (nose-like bump): has sulci (grooves) on the adult, vs. hairs on the nymph
• Forelegs: long/thin and end in tiny pincers on the adult, vs. thick toothed claws on the nymph

It’s pretty amazing that the adult was somehow folded up inside the nymph shell ‘piloting’ it through digging up from the ground and climbing up a tree (er, ‘tree’).

TAGS: insects > cicadas > Betsy the Cicada, cicada ecdysis, Neotibicen; ecdysis

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