Hurricane Farm

This is our second late summer here at our farm and just about now it seems we have an annual invasion!  First, at night one begins to hear chirping.  It begins low, and then builds to a piercing crescendo as the twilight gives way to the summer darkness.

In the morning, when looking around on tree trunks, truck tires, sandbox lids, and swingset legs, one finds empty shells...all that remains of the night's symphony.

Here is one newly hatched cicada with two empty shells.  These were all over the tires on the trucks and most everything else near the spruce trees in the front.  They seem to emerge from dozens of holes around the base of these trees.  Look closely and you can see how the back splits open on the shell to allow the transformed bug to emerge.

We are talking about cicadas.  For about a week this time of year, hundreds of these rather large insects emerge from holes in the ground to hatch from their beetle-like shell with newly formed wings.  They climb up a few feet on whatever they can find, emerge from their shells, and fly off in an ungainly fashion only to mate and disappear underground again to repeat the cycle.

We found one cicada that had yet to hatch.  It was looking for something to climb upon.  We set it on a stick and took a series of photos as it emerged from its shell.

Eventually, with all of us crowding around watching, the bug fell off the stick.  We then put it on a railing to continue watching its emergence.

Over the course of about 30 minutes, the bug underwent its metamorphosis.  The kids were very surprised and excited to watch it up close.

Luminous at first, it slowly fades to a dull, speckled grey.  It's nice to have traditions, and we now have the late summer concerts of the cicadas here at the farm.