Cicada Snap Shots

I have promised several of my readers that I will be posting some of my photos from this spring's Alaska cruise 'Real Soon Now.' And I will. But it takes forever to go through thousands of photos looking for the best ones (or, often, any good ones) and I am not done. But, while you wait: a few snapshots of a cicada I found on my front walk.



I found this cicada on the sidewalk in front of my house at about 1 am. I put it on the back side of a piece of shingle I had near the door and took this photo. This insect has just done its final molt to emerge as an adult. Its wings are still too wet here for it to fly.

This isn't much of a photo (direct flash photos always suck to some degree) and a cicada is not an attractive insect. But the colors of the wings are pretty amazing before they dry out.



The next morning the cicada's wings are almost dry. The insect is clinging to the front side of the shingle (Armstrong, Harbor Blue) and the tips of the wings are transparent, having lost their milky-blue color of the night before.



Here is the cicada on the hood of my car. The shingle is gone except for a couple of granules sticking to the wing.

Shortly after I took this photo it flew off.