Cicada

"Purple"

A Cicada Story

Robert and Miranda found a cicada just climbing up a tree to molt today. (8-9-08)

Once it had come out of the shell Miranda brought it inside to "dry off".

The pictures and movies that follow are of what happened once she brought it inside.

It took a lot longer than I thought it would.

Of course Miranda named it "Purple" because she says it has purple eyes.

10:48 am
After watching outside patiently, for over a half an hour, Miranda brought Purple inside to complete its metamorphosis. Which turned out to be a much slower process than I would have thought.
Miranda also brought in the "shell".

10:59 am

The wings started to unfold one at a time.

It's body is about 2" long and an inch wide.

11:05 am

The wings are very damp and will take a long time to dry up. They tended to "stick" to the table as the fluid was pumped through them.

11:06 am

11:20 am

See the bulb of fluid building up in the right wing?

11:22 am

Purples body is starting to harden and gain darker coloring.

11:28 am

See the inky fluid on the table? That is what came out of the wings. Seems to have acted as a dye and hardener through the veins of the wings and turned the veins and wings black.

11:48 am

It's wings and body are turning darker with the fluid pumping through them.

1:57 pm

It's wings were stiffening and folding. It started beating its wings at this point and trying to find something to climb on to help the fluid get to where it needed to go.

2:40 pm

It started moving around more so we decided to move it outside. We put it on a plant we have on the porch where we could continue to watch it develop.

6:27pm

Purples body has changed almost completely from that bright green to black and its wings are formed nicely.

6:27 pm

Miranda can make it flap its wings by touching its back - as seen in the movie below.

This was the last we saw of Purple. It flew off during dinner.