The metamorphosis of the Cicada species is amazing to observe.

I was blessed enough to photograph the transformation last year in this post, and incredibly I was able to film the process this year. Since it took over 70 minutes for me to record it, I took the initiative to send the raw footage over to Hive account@mericanhomestead to speed it up and put it to some music.

Now, you can watch the Cicada emerge in less than a minute! Thanks Hive account@mericanhomestead!

EMERGE

^ 53 SECOND VIDEO ^

If you have never seen this in real life, I would highly recommend checking out the video. I had never observed it in person until the one that I photographed last year, and this was my first time recoding one. For those of you who want to learn a little more, I’ll explain it.

The Cicada does not live its entire life as the winged insect that makes a loud buzzing noise up in the trees. Though there are many species of Cicadas, they all follow the same basic life cycle. Prior to turning into a flying insect, Cicadas live underground. When the larvae is fully developed, it crawls up out of the earth and climbs the nearest tree or other tall object.

When it finds an appropriate spot, it locks onto the bark with its sharp claws. Once it is secure, it begins to pulsate and eventually the back of its exoskeleton breaks open, exposing the adult Cicada, which is still soft at this point.

After a lot of wiggling and squirming, the Cicada works its way free from the exoskeleton of its larval stage. Soon, it crawls completely out and then expands its wings.

At this point, the ones around here are an amazing green color. Their only goals at the moment are to allow their new exoskeleton and wings to harden, and to not get eaten.

Soon, they are ready for flight, and for life as an adult. I learned a little more about the Cicada on my recent trip to Texas, but I still have not put together that post yet.

If you would like to learn a little more, check out my WILD-MAN post about the Cicada, or just watch the video from it below.

THE WILD-MAN'S WILD FRIEND - CICADA

VERY FORTUNATE

Often, we can find tons of the empty exoskeletons like Monster Truck the Pepper has in his hands. Many times we see the flying Cicadas too, or hear them high in the tree tops, but these are difficult to capture. I consider us to be very fortunate to have actually observed a few hatching, and to photograph and film them too!