PCK

I share this photo not for its technique or creativity. I share this photo because I caught a rare look at a cicada crawling out of his exoskeleton.

If you are familiar with the cicada, you appreciate the mesmerizing sound they make on hot summer nights. I always thought it was grasshoppers but it’s the cicada. I might not be getting this right but they spend many years underground before coming above ground attaching themselves to something and they literally climb out of their skin and leave it behind.

I came home one night and as I opened my privacy fence door in the backyard, on the pole was the cicada. I used my iPhone with flash and caught the attached image. After climbing out of its exoskeleton, it flys away. Amazing.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Yes, it's amazing, isn't it? I saw a bit on TV last night about a type of Cicada that emerges every thirteen years in TN - by the billions! What a mess!

NJFrank Loc: New Jersey

Very neat shot

PCK

Billions!!! Yikes.

kpmac Loc: Ragley, La

Nice capture.

deer2ker Loc: Nashville, TN

Yes, it happened I think it was 2011 - VERY NOISY!!! It was loud to annoyance when you were outside but rather easy to sleep to while inside. We will be getting the 17 year cicadas in the next couple of years I think.

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

Cool photo. I've been lucky to see tarantulas, as well as crabs, shed their exoskeletons. I lived in Washington DC when the seventeen-year batch of cicadas emerged from underground around 1988. Not only deafening noise, but so many you could not avoid stepping on them. Hope to never repeat that experience

Doddy Loc: Barnard Castle-England

Saw a similar programme a while ago jerry, if I remember rightly the local kids were happily sat playing with them. As you said they left a right mess.