We were at the park the other day and Bree comes running back with this crazy looking bug. She has a love of all animals, but especially bugs. I had never seen a bug quite like it before and had no idea what it was.
That’s where you all come in. I posted the picture below on my Housing A Forest Facebook Page and asked if anyone knew what it was. The response was AMAZING. This is where we finally determined that we had a Cicada Nymph.
This little nymph is pretty sweet looking! In the nymph stage, this little guy lives underground feeding on root juice for a number of years. Check out those crazy front legs he uses for digging! After a while, the nymph will dig an exit tunnel and that is where Bree found this little guy. Walking on a dirt road just after he can up out of his tunnel.
Bree was so excited when she saw this sweet video (in the comments) of a cicada nymph molting that she asked to bring it home to see if we could observe our little nymph molt.
We have a decent sized Butterfly house, so we placed the little nymph in there along with a few sticks and things that Bree thought he (I have no idea if it is a boy or girl we just started calling it a “he”) might like. We went in for lunch and by the time we came back out, he had already molted.
The above picture is of his abandoned exoskeleton. Pretty fascinating! Bree could not believe that the Cicada actually fit into the little exoskeleton just moments before.
After we witnessed this little miracle, we released our cicada friend. This is Bree giving it one last good-bye before it flew off.
What a cool experience and I am so glad that we got to witness part of the process. I hope that we can find another nymph again and maybe we witness it actually shedding its exoskeleton.
Yay! What an experience to see it actually in the stage right before molting! I only find the exoskeletons here!.
I love your story and get really excited when kids get to witness nature’s miracles like this! How special!
Uggg….we had a ton of these a couple years ago. Cicadas are one thing that I can’t stomach well. Ever since I was a little girl and my sister would play with the exoskeletons. My younger daughter enjoyed the massive numbers of them though. She was almost 3 at the time, and liked to pick them up and make them kiss. lol
I love it Ashley! This is the only one that we have found, but I am sure if Bree found any more, she would start a collection!
That’s great that you found one still in the shell! We have lots of empty ones in our yard and dead cicadas too! My daughter has been fascinated with them!