Cicada Molt (partial)

Solid Snake

Solid Snake

Avid Member
Just found this guy on the ground just now. Must have fallen from a tree.

Its times like this I wish my camera had time-lapse capabilities. ;/

The light is being provided by my head lamp, sorry its a bit shaky.


It will be Donahue's lunch for tomorrow. :)

The lid it is on was moved to a glass jar, and Im watching his wings uncurl, super cool stuff! :cool:
 
I live in Arizona and since we have so many of these, i feel like the sounds they make makes it feel twice as hot out haha.. i think its just super annoying so that combined with 100 degree weather is the worst..
 
I absolutely love this sort of thing. I think bugs in general are completely fascinating.

Thank you for sharing! If you get a video of it being eaten that would be kinda cool to have have a "Circle of life" video series.
 
beeek0 said:
I live in Arizona and since we have so many of these, i feel like the sounds they make makes it feel twice as hot out haha.. i think its just super annoying so that combined with 100 degree weather is the worst..
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Move, I know you think about it. ;)
(I used to live in similar conditions(heat))
You wont regret it! :p

I actually have not seen one of these in years!

DanSB said:
I absolutely love this sort of thing. I think bugs in general are completely fascinating.

Thank you for sharing! If you get a video of it being eaten that would be kinda cool to have have a "Circle of life" video series.
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Lol, I intend to. ;)

ataraxia said:
i swear those things arent from this planet...lol

Ive never witnessed that before..Pretty neat.
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There are full molts on YT, look them up! Seeing them undo the wings is a trip!

Definitely a weird looking face on these things though. ;/
 
Here is what it looks like now, the whole thing goes a lot faster than I would have thought.

P5210236-1.jpg


P5210233-1.jpg




Its wings are gradually going from parallel to its back, to parallel to its sides.
 
That was really fun to watch. The wings are beautiful. Looking forward to seeing Donahue have his snack. So what? Poor Stella gets nothing?????
 
laurie said:
That was really fun to watch. The wings are beautiful. Looking forward to seeing Donahue have his snack. So what? Poor Stella gets nothing?????
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If Stella could eat that thing, it would go to her first. ;)

Its much larger than her head though! :p

I have had six mantid ooths hatch, in the past 4-5 days or so, she has got to snack on them, Donahue has not, as they are to tini-tiny.

So you see, Solid Snake is a fair, and just Solid Snake...
 
Solid Snake said:
You know what?

Your right.

Ship him on over here, and Ill give it to him instead.
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That's not how that's supost to work lol.
Motherlode Chameleon said:
Cicada have been documented as a major food (when in season) for Parsonii in the wild. I have never seen one hear in central California.
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and awesome here in another month they will be everywhere :) what do they eat besides tree lol. Is there a big risk of parasites with these? I wouldn't think there would be a big risk.
 
I would think there would not be a parasite risk.

They eat the sap from tree roots as larvae, then most do not eat anything at this stage, but some will drink fluids from trees.

Ive been researching them:rolleyes:
 
Motherlode Chameleon said:
Cicada have been documented as a major food (when in season) for Parsonii in the wild. I have never seen one hear in central California.
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I know we have them in the Sacramento area, they look a little different than the one Mr. Snake has though. I hear them a lot more than I see them though.

I tried to see if there was some sort of distribution map but had no luck with a cursory online search. Apparently they don't have them is Southern California so somewhere between here and there they go away. I'm inclined to believe they actually are in So Cal and I read bad information though because it wasn't really a entomology site.

If you don't know what a Cicada call sounds like look it up on youtube. They could be that weird noise you always heard and didn't know what it was... They are generally high up in trees and not easily seen (here at least).
 
DanSB said:
I know we have them in the Sacramento area, they look a little different than the one Mr. Snake has though. I hear them a lot more than I see them though.

I tried to see if there was some sort of distribution map but had no luck with a cursory online search. Apparently they don't have them is Southern California so somewhere between here and there they go away. I'm inclined to believe they actually are in So Cal and I read bad information though because it wasn't really a entomology site.

If you don't know what a Cicada call sounds like look it up on youtube. They could be that weird noise you always heard and didn't know what it was... They are generally high up in trees and not easily seen (here at least).
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I think I know what your talking about. That noise during the summer. From what I have seen I presumed that that noise was coming from Katydids not Cicada. I lived on a ranch in the Sierra Nevada foothills for almost 2 decades and found many neat insects. However I have never seen a Cicada. I hope I'm wrong though it would be great to feed some to my Parsonii.
 
Katydids and cicada have similar (if not the same) sounding calls. The only way I can tell them apart is by the time of day and locations. From what I understand (I could be wrong I haven't looked in years and memory does funny things) Katydids call only at dusk or at night and from pretty much anywhere where cicadas will call during the day and almost always in trees.

Next time you hear the electric buzz it might be worth investigation! There are tons where I work in the summer in Rancho Cordova. I'll try to catch one and get a picture in the summer. I think this variety isn't quite as big as the ones they get back east and in the south though.
 
As of 1953 there were 65 species of cicada described in California and it looks like they are in most every county.

This was published in 1954 and has a handy guide of species by county. It is over 50 years old but I doubt there have been enough insect extinctions for it to have changed that much especially in areas that have remained rural.

Note this is a PDF but worth a look!

http://essig.berkeley.edu/documents/cis/cis02_3.pdf
 
DanSB said:
As of 1953 there were 65 species of cicada described in California and it looks like they are in most every county.

This was published in 1954 and has a handy guide of species by county. It is over 50 years old but I doubt there have been enough insect extinctions for it to have changed that much especially in areas that have remained rural.

Note this is a PDF but worth a look!

http://essig.berkeley.edu/documents/cis/cis02_3.pdf
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Good! Nice bit of fast research. I'm glad I was wrong. I'm going to find a spot and go collecting.
 
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