They're here: A first cicada sighting in Fanwood

A cicada in Fanwood

Cicada's impressive wings

Periodical cicadas have finally emerged around my home. So far, there is evidence of three of them.

The cicada shown seems fully mature. On a nearby wall, another cicada seemed to be emerging from its thick brown exoskeleton (below). There were also two exoskeletons on the ground -- split like abandoned armor --  near where this one was sighted. The empty exoskeletons with legs, and in the fully formed shape of an insect body, look like a different sort of bug altogether. I wish I had seen one of those moving around.

Today was the first cicada sighting, and I'm happy -- today, at least -- to see these large bugs that are beautiful and a little ugly at the same time, with their bulging, round rust-colored eyes against a thick black head. What is beautiful is the cicada's color combination and lace-like, veined transparent wings that are sufficiently large to carry such a chubby bug in flight.  

The mature cicada and the one that seemed to be emerging from its exoskeleton (it hasn't moved for four hours, so I'm wondering if it is alive) allowed me to get surprisingly close for photographs. Here is a good place to learn more about cicadas with information from Rutgers.

A dead cicada that failed to emerge from its exoskeleton.

  Cicada exoskeletons are like body armor left behind.