Monday, August 26, 2013

magic bugs and the siren call

Bugs are coming, bugs are coming. And they're very loud.

Here in SW Ontario, cicadas (aka Magicicadas in NE USA) are currently emerging from the ground, climbing trees, shedding their skin and singing out their siren-like mating call at a sound level of 110 - 120 decibels. Maybe you've heard.

["A Magicicada upon an apricot leaf in my
front yard." More details at CBC website]

I started hearing a loud ringing in my ears last week. When I popped my head out the shop door I couldn't tell from which direction the sound came but I knew it was a cicada's mating call. And on Saturday morning I found evidence that cicada eggs had been deposited in the soil of my front yard 13 or 17 years ago. I carefully collected nine empty cicadas shells from a front yard tree but didn't spot an adult ready to sing.

["A cicada exoskeleton on the trunk of the apricot tree"]  

The large insects - after shedding their exoskeleton - had flown the coop.

["Bugs are coming, bugs are coming. Then going!"]

Photos by GH

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