cicada quest

I’ve been a little bit disappointed, because I haven’t seen any cicadas around the old homestead. At work, we’ve been stepping in, around, and on them during the daily lunch walk, for about a week now, but it seemed like the development was too new – it’s less than 17 years old, and the grading done during construction wipes the little buggers out. But then TheWife mentioned seeing a bunch of shells by a little path that’s across the street, which winds through a little grassy area. This made sense, because the path is bordered by trees that are clearly more than 17 years old. So around dusk, I grabbed the camera and set out in search of “the ghost maiden” (heh – thanks, JenB…) And boy howdy, they were all over the place! These were pre-molt larva, that must have just come out of the ground tonight. (Note that you can see the wings through the carapace.)