Friday, July 28, 2017

Cicada shell on fencepost, Iowa City

All around us right now, giant insectoid monsters are erupting from the soil, then climbing to the highest place they can find to shed their skins and take to the air. I never actually saw a cicada before last year: I just heard them shrieking in the trees. Last year, however, Harriet and I discovered some cicada shells underneath leaves on the small lilac in our front yard, and my wonderful field biologist aunt Sally helped us identify the mystery monsters. Now that I've got a good search image for them, I am seeing them everywhere this year, and I am delighted to keep pointing them out to others as well. This one was found at the birthday party of one of Harriet's friends, and a whole group of little kids gathered to "ooh" and "aah" at it before their 5-year old attention spans went elsewhere.

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