Last week I shared a bit of information and some sequence images of Chorus cicada metamorphosis from nymph to adult. This week I will share some images of the adults during the day once their exoskeletons and wings have hardened.

As mentioned last time, the transition period carries some risk and not all adults successfully negotiate the metamorphosis. The one I photographed hatching showed some blistering of haemolymph in it’s wings and this is probably the equivalent of an internal haemorrhage, which if too significant could be fatal. I like to think that that individual survived and succeeded in ascending to the canopy as there was no sign of it when I revisited it’s hatching location during the day.

On my day walk looking for adults we found plenty of nymph shucks and in a short section of track came across 5 live adults and 2 dead ones that had not survived metamorphosis. This is an inadequate sample size to infer mortality risk but enough to suggest that it is not insignificant.

One had separated from it’s nymphal shuck but had died prior to full inflation of the wings which showed some bulging similar to the blistering I had photographed. The second one had died while still emerging from the nymph thorax and had been infected with a fungus.

For this image I wanted to add some angled backlighting to make the nymphal shuck glow and add a rim light to the fungus. I achieved this with a Godox MF12 held behind the trunk and triggered by the main flash.

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