Presenting EDGAR THE CICADA 🎉 I bugnapped Edgar last Friday evening, thinking I would help out a random cicada nymph by sheltering it from the storm. Like Betsy the Cicada, he is almost certainly in the genus Neotibicen, and perhaps N. canicularis, the so-called “dog-day” annual cicada.
The first image + 2 videos are catadioptric, and show the first crack in Edgar’s nymphal exuvium (shell), followed by the beginning of his ecdysis (molting). In the 1st video at 2X speed, and in the 2nd at original speed, you can see him wriggling and flexing; the horizontal green band hinging up and down is called the pronotal collar, on the upper thorax. The 4th item is a 2D macro shot, showing Edgar’s ocelli—the three tiny and orange simple eyes in between his larger compound ones.
These three items are NOT Edgar, but some similar nymphs and nymph exuviae seen in the wild in the same area. The catadioptric video shows what is probably a female, since it is considerably larger; the first still is catadioptric and the second is a sequential with an old iPhone.
TAGS: insects > cicadas > cicada ecdysis, cicada nymphs, ecdysis, Edgar the Cicada, Neotibicen
?Subject=8/23/21">Leave a comment
