Saturday, November 15, 2008

The No-Eyed, "Holy" Cicada

Cicadas are supposed to look like this, complete with no holes and perfect eyes.


However, this past August, I found this poor Cicada (which is not a dog day cicada [Tibicen canicularis] as pictured above, it is perhaps a swamp cicada [Tibicen tibicen], but I'm not positive), whose eyes had been picked out and its thorax had a large, cavernous hole revealing the inside pinkish flesh. What could be more gross than a mortally wounded insect? This guy was still living when I snapped these images, a testament to the survivability of these creatures.










Our yard was loaded with dog day cicadas this year, but I only observed this one swamp cicada. I'm sure Cicada larva feast on the roots of our stately bur oak, and I'm glad that they do. While some may consider them gross, cicadas are great insects to photograph. One, they are big, so you get very nice images even without a dedicated macro lens, and second, they are slow and not apt to fly away once you've captured one. Fore more cicada images, check out Cicada Mania, a site I originally learned about after my first cicada post this summer, to which Cicada Mania linked.

For more animal images, see Misty Dawn's meme Camera Critters.

23 comments:

  1. WOW! I'm impressed with your macro shots!

    Mine is, HERE. Happy Weekend!!

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  2. yuck!!!!!!!!!!!! great close ups but they are creeping me out!

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  3. I could have did without those last shots! Poor thing. Even though their sound can drive me nuts, I hate to see anything suffer.

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  4. Your pictures are a reminder that these little creatures too suffer.

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  5. great shots .. but yuck! we had the 17 year cicadas a couple of years ago and they were pretty darn scary with their red eyes

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  6. Great shots...though a bit creepy for me :-)

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  7. They are so colorful. Almost like kewelry.

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  8. Amazing images!
    Sad about the little guy though.

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  9. I got some photos of a cicada earlier this year, but they weren't nearly as wonderful as these close-ups! I am impressed with this poor creature's stamina!

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  10. Great macro shots!

    It is amazing how tenaciously some creatures cling to life

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  11. Very nice! Impressive photography. I tie my own flies for fly fishing so I often find these closeups very useful at times!
    ~Michele~
    Mountain Retreat- Canada

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  12. Great cicada photos! I hope you post more in the years to come!

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  13. Sort of gross and bizarre! I'm amazed it was still alive.

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  14. Great post, the icky too. Not participating this week just wanted to have a look see.

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  15. Still alive??? Cripes! I'll stop complaining about the bursitis in my shoulder now!
    Lovely shots, btw.

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  16. Wonderful--if painful--shots. Like Lana, I'm going to stop complaining about my aches and pains!

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  17. Yuk! I like the pictures cicadas, think their coloring and eyes are neat, but don't like to see one with a hole in it! Makes me sad for him!
    Mom

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  18. Nice Macro Photography. Keep on Exploring Your Nature.

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  19. I tried to find some to photograph this summer after reading about them. I could hear them, but wasn't climbing any trees to find them...

    New Rambling Woods Site

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