Cicada Invasion

May 2004, the invasion of the seventeen year periodical cicadas begins. After weeks of waiting, I finally see signs of them. Over the next few days, they come out in force. Every morning, around 8am, they are crawling up the trees and coming out of their shell. The sixteenth was particularily interesting. It rained in the morning so when the cicadas came out, their exoskeletons weren't hardening enough for them to break free and they were just building up on the trees. When there was a bit of sunshine, they all started coming out at once. The molting process takes about an hour. It will be another hour or more before they have hardened and darkened. Weeks later, the invasion is over, the ground is littered with the corpses of the erstwhile invaders. Civilization has been saved.

It is never really over though. Millions of eggs were laid, when they hatch, the new nymphs drop to the ground and burrow in it. The cicada's are regrouping, building their reserves, and preparing for the next battle.

Seventeen years later, in May 2021 they are ready. As strong as ever and prepared to repeat the battle as they have done every seventeen years for hundreds, if not thousands of years. I also had been making good use of the intervening time, getting my equipment ready, practicing and reviewing my notes from the prior years. When they started emerging, I was there, camera in hand.

Although they are sometimes called locusts, they are not related to them at all. They are in the family Cicadidae and genus Magicicada. I hope you enjoy these cicada pictures.

View Medium or Large image.	Cicada molting on another cicada When these cicadas decide to stop moving and molt, they don't pay attention to where they are and sometimes they will climb on another cicada that is also molting. It often doesn't end well for the one underneath. Date: May 13, 2021 Location: Bethesda, MD
View Medium or Large image.	Molting Cicada When they get this far out of their shell, they stop and spend about 15 minutes resting before moving further. Date: May 14, 2004 Location: Bethesda, MD
View Medium or Large image.	Triple play molting Three different cicadas all started moltng at about the same time on three different blades of grass. Date: May 19, 2021 Location: Bethesda, MD
View Medium or Large image.	Hanging and flipping When a cicada is molting, first it sticks straight out of it's shell, then it grabs the shell with it's legs, pulls it's abdomen the rest of the way out of it's now-unneeded exoskeleton and flips so it is hanging down. Here is a cicada in the middle of that flip. Date: May 25, 2021 Location: Bethesda, MD
View Medium or Large image.	Wings lengthning When the cicada exits it's shell, it's wings are still small and not fully expanded. Over a period of many minutes the wings lengthen. Date: May 15, 2004 Location: Bethesda, MD
View Medium or Large image.	Milting on a stack of shells There are many cicadas doing their final molt over a period of a week or more. Popular twigs can have cicadas molt in the same spot at different times and you get a traffic jam of empty exoskeletons. This cicada's wings are still in the process of fully lengthning and haven't folded against it's body yet. Date: May 21, 2021 Location: Bethesda, MD
View Medium or Large image.	Freshly molted cicada When they molt expand. At first they are flat, like the one here, but slowly their wings fold down flat against their body. Date: May 18, 2021 Location: Bethesda, MD
View Medium or Large image.	Hanging around I am not sure how this happened, but one cicada as attached itself via its front legs, to the front legs of another that is just coming out of it's shell. Date: May 16, 2004 Location: Bethesda, MD
View Medium or Large image.	Mass emergence During the rain, a bunch of cicada's built up on this tree trunk. When it started to dry out, they all started molting. Date: May 16, 2004 Location: Bethesda, MD
View Medium or Large image.	Shells on Leaves Empty shells of departed cicadas. They will molt wherever they can, but prefer to climb up things. This makes it common to see them on tall blades of grass, tree trunks, and especially leaves high in the tree. Date: May 14, 2004 Location: Bethesda, MD
View Medium or Large image.	Mass Cicada Bunches on them on these plants. Lots of shells too. Date: May 15, 2004 Location: Bethesda, MD
View Medium or Large image.	Numerous cicadas on a narrow branch Quite a number of adult cicadas resting on leaves and a narrow branch. Date: May 31, 2021 Location: Bethesda, MD
View Medium or Large image.	Cicadas on a plant Three cicadas on a flower. Date: May 15, 2004 Location: Bethesda, MD
View Medium or Large image.	Here's looking at you A cicada on a plant, looking at you! Date: May 26, 2004 Location: Bethesda, MD
View Medium or Large image.	A cicada on grass opposite it's shell An adult cicada on a blade of grass. Directly oposite it, on the other side of the grass is it's old exoskeleton, which it has shed. Date: May 25, 2021 Location: Bethesda, MD
View Medium or Large image.	Cicada on a twig Have a good look at this one, it is a Magicicada septendecim, you can tell by its size and the broad orange stripes on the underside. Date: May 26, 2004 Location: Bethesda, MD