Backyard Zoology · 13 November 2020
2020-11-13T13:55:08+11:00
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Well I'm a very happy gal today and not just because it's Friday and Friday equals Friday Night Fun (ie wine) even though we  happened to also have Wednesday Night Fun this week. Don't judge. It's been a long week 😉 

But just on dusk yesterday, I heard it fire up. It's one of those sounds that some summers I absolutely love and other summers I despise with all my heart and soul and most importantly, my eardrums. Cicadas!!! I've been hearing small pockets of them around on various wanders in the last week or so but last night was the first time this season that I heard them in our yard, buzzing and humming that rhythmic ear piercing call for a mate! 

By the time that darkness had fallen, I was pretty much bouncing around, peering out windows and opening and closing doors before finally deciding it was time to head out into the warm, sticky night to see what I could find. There were Leaf-Tailed Geckos waiting face down for spiders and cockroaches and Orb Weavers wrapping up newly caught meals and a young Brushie who clambered up the electricity pole, the chance of electrocution freaking me out way more than it did the little fluffy guy who tightrope walked along the wires before disappearing into the night.

And then sometime, just after 9PM I spotted them, not one but two dirty shelled nymphs making their way up out of the ground and onto the side of the deck. Now just to prove how out of practice I am and also just how wild a life we lead, I missed the initial splitting of the shell and the first moments of emergence because I was ah, reading in bed!

I have to say though, watching a Cicada nymph shrug off, over hours, its hard exoskeleton and emerge as an adult fresh and soft and bright is without a doubt my absolute favourite behaviour in the animal world. I guess that's your warning that there'll be a few more of these posts in the coming months 😂😉 This process is looongg and I made it to just after 12AM when I ran out bared footed into the now rainy night and grabbed a photo on my phone of the wings finally next to the body. But I missed the final hardening and darkening and so as to the species of these two Cicadas? That can remain a mystery for next time.

Cicada Moult
Northern Illawarra