I am not precisely sure why I was so anxious about the arrival of the cicadas. I think that I am predisposed to consider anything related to the state of the natural world as a portent of its decay and disappearance. I am walking around mourning the death of the trees even as the world explodes in jungle green around me. Every dead oak tree branch stabs my heart and I think "now the oaks, too, are going to disappear."
The 17 year cicadas did not seem to be arriving. We heard none, though there were holes in the ground. Then I saw an article about some strange fungus they pick up during their 17 years underground, a fungus that eats off their back ends and screws up their sexual behavior. But before it kills them, they fly around like "saltshakers of death," said the article. So, given my obsessions, I naturally assumed that, well, the cicadas are going the way of the honey bees and thousands of other insect species. Did I not read that the insect life in the Black Forest had fallen off 80%?
However, the cicadas do seem to be arriving in all of their obnoxiousness. They are mostly harmless to vegetation and they do not bite or sting. They're just unbearably loud, so loud that your ears ring when you go inside.
Yep, that's what I was waiting for. Every day they are getting louder and louder. I'm really quite relieved that they still live on our planet and that I can go back to complaining about their existence.
This is a superb photo of this one! I’m amazed at the marvelous detail you have captured. It’s almost as if it were art but I can’t get excited about bug art. That being said I am still giving it a FAV
Good shot. I don't think they are hatching out this far south, but I remember arriving to Girl Scout camp one summer and hearing the hum and seeing the empty exoskeletons all over the place. I'm not sure I've ever seen a live one. This has great details including those bulging red eyes.
for some reasons, we don't have that here this year, although i can remember a year, in the 90's, when we had those and everyone was thankful after they were gone. maybe it's the change in climate that spurred the fungus on. in any case, this is a really good shot of one of them. aces!
May 29th, 2021
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