Cicada shedding its shell and emerging!!!!
We spotted this cicada in our Sydney home the other night. He had just broken out of his shell.
If you are not familiar with cicadas, they are a reasonably large oval-shaped, winged insects that provide a buzzing and clicking song heard in nature throughout the summer.
To give you a little bit of background. Here is the lifecycle of a cicada. As you can see our cicada is at the molting stage.
We thought it was pretty amazing so we took some video of the little guy. Check out his wings growing and unfolding as the video plays.
This cicada would have spent many years underground before emerging as a nymph. He then climbed onto our wall and begin to shed his nymph exoskeleton. The cicada's wings inflated with fluid and his skin hardened. Now he's ready to start his brief adult life.
Pretty amazing!!!!! Right?