Cicada and Katydid Photography by Kozmic Dreams

My Digital Photography of

Cicadas and Leafhoppers

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Cicadas

The cicada is a fascinating insect. It spends the beginning of its life underground, sucking juices from tree roots. Then one day, it climbs above ground and holds tight to something (like a wall or tree trunk) and its skin splits. Out comes a mature cicada with wings. It flies up to the trees and makes the loud droning sound you have probably heard before. Cicadas take anywhere from 2-17 years underground before they emerge as adults, depending on the species. I have found the skins and I've found adult cicadas before, but never have I seen them in the underground stage until July 2, 2004. I watered the lawn on this evening and the ground was so dry that much of the water stayed near the surface and wasn't seeping into the soil. One of these little guys must have been drowning just below the surface, so he climbed out to get some air. My boyfriend Brian spotted him in the grass and I took a whole bunch of pictures before letting him go again (I think he needs another year or so---look how underdeveloped his wings are). So now I can share this amazing stage of life with you---something you probably haven't seen before either. I found an even younger one on May 20, 2006. I added its pictures before the older nymph.

Early stage of Cicada Life Cycle (underground root-sucking nymphs)

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Young Nymph, 5-19-06

Older Nymph, 7-2-04

Splitting through the skin and emerging as an adult cicada

For 23 years, I have wanted to observe a cicada emerging from its shell (ever since I was 8 and first saw the shells). On the evening of July 25th, 2006 at around 11:55pm, I finally got the chance. One had climbed onto the wall by my side door and luckily, Brian noticed it and alerted me to get my camera. I took a lot of photographs of it when it first started to come out of the shell. Once it was pretty much out, I went inside. After seeing its stubby, crunched-up wings, I figured there must be some other stage where its wings would develop more. I assumed I wouldn't get to see this process. Unfortunately, my assumption was wrong---when I went back outside at around 2 am, the cicada was fully emerged, resting next to its skin, and the wings were there! They must have unfolded, which seemed impossible from the looks of things. What a surprise. It's too bad I didn't get any pictures of them unfolding. The cicada still doesn't have the adult coloration---it is a very pale green color, but it seems to be darkening up a bit over time. Below are the photos of its emergence in sequential order. At the end is a close-up of a different split skin.

Adult Cicadas

On September 16, 2006, Brian found a living adult cicada in the lawn. It seemed to be dying, as it did not try to immediately fly away when I caught it. I managed to take photos of it on several different surfaces---a leaf, two different hasta flowers, and summer poinsettia flowers. Then it flew up high, hit my house, bounced off and headed west. This is the first adult cicada I've ever photographed while it was still alive (besides the one that emerged from a nymph).

The adult pictured below was photographed at dusk on 8-21-05. Unfortunately, it was freshly dead when I found it. If it was alive, I probably wouldn't have gotten any photos of it. Notice how the three red dots near the top of its head act as reflectors.

Here is the same adult photographed on 8-22-05 with daylight (natural settings) and indoor lighting (white background).

Below is a close-up of the head and thorax region, the underside, and a close-up of one of its eyes.

Here is a different cicada specimen that I mounted with its wings out. This way, you can see all four wings.

To learn more about cicadas, click the links below:

U of M Periodical Cicada Page

Cicadas of Michigan

Leafhoppers

Cotton Leaf-hopper Nymph, Acanalonia bivittata

On July 14, 2008, I saw something on the kitchen counter that appeared to be a bran bud. Upon closer inspection, I discovered it was another cotton leaf-hopper nymph, like the one I found last summer. This one didn't have as much "cotton" coming out of its rear end though.

Acanalonia conica

I found this leaf-hopper in the grass on July 30, 2007. Unfortunately, one of its hind legs was broken and it wasn't able to hop (but it was easy to photograph).

Cotton Leaf-hopper Nymph, Acanalonia bivittata

I found this strange insect in my front yard and photographed it on July 9, 2006. A few are out of focus, but they still show the general shape of the insect. It hops like a leaf-hopper and has a face similar to one, but I've never seen anything like this before in the 31 years I've lived in this area. After doing some research, I found that I was correct---it is a leaf-hopper (or sometimes called a plant hopper) nymph. This means it's just a baby. It has very strange red-orange eyes composed of concentric circles that don't even have a glassy appearance like most insect eyes. It also has a bristle poking out of a green protuberance underneath each eye. Stranger still, there is some white cotton-like material poking out of its rear end. This is one crazy-looking bug.