A common occurrence around my house that happens when Nathan visits; I sit on the back-porch with him while he puffs on a cigarette. Usually, being very knowledgeable about insect species, he picks off a few from the porch lights, tells us a few things about the creature, and lets it go back in to the wild. But tonight, he found something fairly unique.
This Cicada (or (Tibicen Canicularis as he demanded I inform you), was just ready to hatch. So we put together a quick time-lapse rig and shot the process. The whole video below covers a span of real time of about 150 minutes, 2.5 hours. I couldn’t believe how colorful and vibrant the adult Cicada was upon hatching. Check it out:
Two things: first, it should be Tibicen canicularis, with the whole name italicized and the species epithet lower case. Second, there are approximately half a dozen species of Tibicen in Western PA, if not a few more. Most are difficult to distinguish unless you hear the song, and are probably damn near impossible while they’re still green and unhardened (as in the video and pictures), so I’m a bit incredulous about the identification.
The timelapse, however, is awesome. I wish I could get something that nice to enter into the Entomological Society of America photo contest.