As a child we had a large stand of Deodar cedars on the lower terrace of our garden. These were host to cicadas which hatched each summer and were known as “Christmas singers”. It was intriguing to find the nymphal husks attached to the tree trunks but I never saw one hatch and seldom saw the adults high in the canopy.
The New Zealand equivalent is the endemic Chorus cicada (Amphipsalta zelandica) which announce themselves in the heat of summer and distract from my year round tinnitus. They have an average 4 year life cycle with some summers significantly louder than others. This year I noticed a localised patch of forest close to home that was dramatically louder than the surrounds and it made an easy option to easily find cicada subjects for daylight or nocturnal photo sessions.
The nymphs emerge to hatch into adults well after sundown so a mission to document the sequence needs to accommodate a later than usual bed time. I had hoped to try and capture an automatic focus bracketed sequence for stacking as these are more precise and easier to stack. I found a nice low nymph and set up my tripod and 2 flashes to wait for some action.
Despite patiently watching for well over an hour, nothing happened to suggest it was going to progress transition into an adult. I kept an eye on number of other nymphs in the area and found one that was making good progress so captured some hand held focus stacks of the progression.
The emergence seems to be hard work taking time to fully emerge and then inflate the wings.
When freshly emerged the adults exoskeletons are soft and pale and need to harden. The folded wings are inflated by pumping haemolymph into the veins to expand them hydrostatically before they harden.
With this individual I noticed a blister of haemolymph form on one wing and then later on the other. Presumably this was from some minor vascular damage causing leakage under pressure and hopefully resorbed.
Hatching is obviously a risky event for cicadas. Following years of sap feeding underground they become exposed to predators so time their transition for the dark of night. Not all are successful in completing the journey to adult and next week I will share a couple of failures. Those that do make it then need to run a continual gauntlet of birds, with famously adaptable house sparrows being especially good at targeting the adults.
Photos with Nikon Z7 and Nikkor Z 105mm f2.8 MC VR S. Godox V1 flash on camera with home made diffuser and Godox MF-12 macro flash off camera
