Wednesday, September 21, 2016

Locusts (Actually Cicados) On Parade

No quilting in this post, just so you know.

You may remember these first two pictures taken on my front porch and included in my July 28 post.



After the green insect emerged from the brown thing hanging on the brick, I took this picture with two "dried shells" that were split down the back.
I had called the one on the left "the Mother Locust".
A couple of days ago as I went out to get my mail, I looked up at a big limb on the tree in my yard and saw something that amused me. I just had to take more pictures!  I think I counted about 18 "brown dried shells" lined up in a row on the bottom of the limb!  Never had I seen anything like that.  I just had to laugh out loud.  In the fourth picture below you can see the lineup on the angle of the limb above my roof.


The first angle I saw; shady side of limb.

From directly below the limb.

From sunny side of limb, back toward my house.



Upward angle; these in an exact straight line, with more out of picture.
I probably just had ignored or accepted the sound of these insects earlier, but the night after finding this "Parade",  I heard the singing of the green cicados that no doubt had emerged from these dried shells.  I'm hearing them even as I type this!

Now all of you may know a lot about cicados, but I have always just accepted them as part of living in Texas.  However, my curiosity was aroused by these strange insects, so I decided to do a little research.  In case you just might be interested, here's some links to what I found.

  The most interesting 17 year cicada facts - Cicada Mania






I certainly don't understand all I read, and I'm not sure I agree with all of it, so I've just decided to enjoy watching them, and especially listening to them.   The green cicados are the ones I see around here, (and LOTS of the dried shells).  The research has been an enjoyable venture for me.  Hope it hasn't bored anyone too badly.

Now......do you think maybe I should get back to quilting?  I have to get a hanging sleeve on that last Civil War quilt; it will be entered in a nearby show in about three weeks!

---"Love"
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3 comments:

  1. RuthSeptember 22, 2016 at 8:32 AM

    Very interesting. I looked at a couple of those sites briefly and may look at them more later. I don't recall hearing cicadas here in Oregon and am wondering if there is a map of their locations. I'll look for that again later - there is a lot to explore on those sites and I don't know how much time I want to devote to this. Hee Hee!

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  2. SandySeptember 22, 2016 at 8:51 AM

    First thing I did, after looking at the first site, was to see if they live in our cooler Alberta climate. Yes they do! They are not plentiful, though. It looks like you have a minor infestation in your yard.
    Exciting to hear that your Civil War quilt will be going to it's first show. Best of luck to you.

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  3. Janet O.September 22, 2016 at 3:17 PM

    Fascinating.
    I used to be a 4-H leader in entomology, and we rarely saw cicadas during that time. We would get excited when someone would actually catch one.
    I learned a lot from this!

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