Cicada Moulting

As we gathered our things, preparing to decamp, Leiceshire Lilt took her pack off the tree and noticed a big brown bug drop. It landed on a black bag below the tree. She called out, Come see what a large bug!

We gathered around the thing and exclaimed, What an ugly bug. It had a huge head and four eyes. Bug Lady, who knew all about dragonflies, petted the bug's head. Then we made jokes about the bug being an alien.

The next time we looked at the bug, its head had separated into two. It was now a four-eyed, two-headed bug, one head on top of the other. That's when Bug Lady shrieked, This is not an alien, this bug is moulting.

We oohed and aahed around the bug. What is it? A giant cockroach? A junebug? Someone determined it was a cicada. Over the next two hours, we watched the bug's amazing process as it shed its old body and grew into a new one.

Here are the photographs Bug Lady took.

By the time we took the camera out and set it up, the bug had already come out half way. Note the tiny green things on its side.


Front view. It has come out some more.


Look how the green wings expand as it pushes itself out of its old body.


It is now mostly out.


It has fully detached from its old body and moves backwards.


It rests on its old body for a while. As it waits, its wings stretch.


See how its wings are almost full size and the bug's new shell is hardening.


A little while later, it walks over its over body and away...


...to inside the bag where it's protected. It hangs upside down, probably to let its wings dry and to wait for its new shell to harden some more.


Here's the discarded body.


Later, Bug Lady put it on the tree. See the camouflage.