August 10: Dog day cicada husks

More of the annual cicadas are emerging now, leaving their brittle brown shells clinging to the surfaces they used to molt. I say "emerging" because they spend at least a couple of years deep underground, in nymph form, feeding on the juice of tree roots. Then they burrow out and crawl onto some quiet, protected surface and crawl right out of their skin, out a slit in the back, and when they emerge their wings unfurl and eventually harden to a shiny surface. Eventually they crawl or fly away, leaving the skin, a perfect, empty form of their former selves, right down to the little legs and claws.

They'll make tremendous amounts of noise, if they're males, mate, and if they're females, cut slits in tree twigs and lay rows of eggs. When the eggs hatch, the babies will drop to the ground and burrow into the soil to continue the cycle.