Biology 101

I had lunch with the teacher I work with today. She had said on the last day of school that we would have to go to lunch sometime soon. Well, summer started and things got busy with us both and we didn't get together until today. She wanted to do it now, because if we waited much longer, she said she would just sit there and cry. Every time she hears the locusts she gets that sick feeling in the pit of her stomach she said.

Well, that got me thinking. Are they locusts? And why do they make that noise? And why so late in the summer? Why do they shed their skins? So, I did some research.

First I Googled "locust". It described a locust as a type of grasshopper. Well, I've seen these boogers and they are no grasshopper! More like a GIANT fly.

So I got a little more technical and Googled "What insect makes the buzzing sound in the trees?". See, much more precise. And I got what I was looking for.

They are called cicada. The droning sound that you hear is actually a mating call. Only the males do the calling to attract the females. Once they have mated, the female slits an opening on a branch or twig and deposits her eggs. After they mate, the cicada dies shortly thereafter.

When the eggs hatch, the young nymphs drop down to the ground and bury themselves in the dirt. Here they will nourish themselves from the sap of the tree roots. This is what is freaky. They stay in this nymph stage, in the ground, for 2-17 years! Wow!

Once they emerge from the ground, they climb several feet up the tree and their skin splits, and the adult cicada pushes its way out.

That is when you find these:

The first two the kids and I had found yesterday. After I did my "research", I went out to the pine tree in the front yard and found three more on there.



Then, I looked directly under the shells, to see if I could tell where they had come from. I'm not sure, but there were a couple of places that looked like this:



It's hard to see, but is actually a small hole in the ground.

After they break from their shells and fly to the trees to mate, they only live an average of two weeks as an adult.

Now, we have all hopefully learned something. I hope it was not just me. If you already knew about this Internet, please, don't make me feel stupid. Let me think I taught you something.

After all, I do work in a Kindergarten classroom.