Cicada are back

One of the rights of passage through childhood for many boys ( and quite a few girls) in Australia is the catching of Cicada during the summertime.
These amazing creatures, after spending seven years or more underground, emerge to rejoice in the heatwave and produce a sound I have always associated with this time of year.

These coastal grasslands are home to one of the smallest of these insects I have seen to date.


Some cicada are easy to catch, some are harder.
These guys have eyes in the back of their heads ( it seems), as they are very small and very quick.
I was, after stalking on hands and knees like someone possessed, able to catch this insect pictured below - though only on film.
It took younger eyes, and quicker reflexes than mine, to help achieve this task.
Good to see that the youth of today still find excitement in the hunt of these elusive creatures.




The lads, who were down from Bateman's Bay for a cricket match in Bermagui, even managed to score a chrysalis from the creatures nymph stage.


I have a previous post, with a couple of pictures of cicada that show the difference in size.
One of my first posts was of a similar cicada, though those pictured above are marginally smaller.