Cicada

I was playing with my dogs in our front room and noticed two cicada shells hanging on the screen of our front window. Then, I noticed a cicada chillin' next to one of the shells. I looked at it for a long time, taking in it's big eyes, intricate wings, and long body. Soon after my cicada watching, Dale and I went out to run some errands. Over an hour later, we arrived back at the homefront and I noticed that the cicada was still on the screen -hanging out with the empty shells.

I decided to get my camera and take a few photos. Here is my test shot:

you can see me in the reflection

Unfortunately, this poor photo is all I got of Mr. Cicada. Right after I took this, that sun-of-a-gun took flight! He barely missed my camera lens as he vacated the area. His sudden evacuation caused me to jump about 3 feet in the air, backwards! I also squealed like a little girl. It took a minute or so to compose myself and to check around to see if my neighbors witnessed my overreaction. Nope. I was in the clear, thank goodness.

Here is a close up of the cicada shell:


These bad boys live anywhere from 2-17 years! Most of their life is lived underground. They eventually crawl from the earth to a plant (or window screen) and molt away their skin. It's pretty cool. When I was a kid, we would take the skins and attach them to each other's clothes.
Now, the thought of that kind of creeps me out.