Dog Day Cicada Molting. The Circle of Life through Backyard Pictures and Videos.
I have been seeing a bunch of empty bug carcasses laying around a certain part of my back yard lately. Turns out they are Dog Day Cicadas and they are molting, leaving behind their old bodies for ones with wings. Cicadas are insects that live underground most of their lives as nymphs. After a few years they climb up a tree (in this case a wooden fence post) and molt. They fly off and mate, and then die.
I got lucky and happened upon one at the very beginning of the process. The whole ordeal took around a half hour, so my hands and body were pretty sore from being hunched over and holding my iPhone as steady as possible for that long. If I posted all the videos it would be super boring, so I selected some cool pics from the process and am including three videos spanning the end of the process. Make sure to watch until the end of the 3rd video for the circle of life. Enjoy!
Your videos are set to private ;)
I was wondering why they looked like that! But they worked for me, thanks for letting me know. Changed them to public for all to enjoy :)
That is amazing! What are the odds that we both posted on the same thing! Very cool!
On a side note, were you still thinking about maybe coming to the steemit meetup in Wisconsin on Friday?
I had been planning on making a post about them for a week or so, just so happened to find one in the process and decided to buckle up for the ride! Your time lapse video was awesome! Wish I would have had a tripod to just set the camera on and let it be.
I would say it's a long shot to make it as of now. If I can though I will definitely let you know!
Your post is really awesome! Although you say it was tiresome, it must be great to see the circle of life with your own eyes.
Hey, thanks so much! It was tiring, but totally worth it!
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