Cicada Exuvia

Description:

My pictures show the exuvia (moulted exoskeleton) of an unidentified Cicada. At various times throughout the year, these can be seen on the ground and sometimes on the trees in our backyard. As everyone knows, Cicadas (when in large numbers on the trees) can make quite a racket, especially in the evening at dusk. That is going on, now, in our area as the rainy season sets in. So I was not surprised when I spotted this one today. The main reason for sending it to Project Noah as a spotting is the little bit of white material which can sometimes be seen on these "exuviae" is fairly clear in my photos. I didn't really know what this was until I found a reference to it on-line today. When the Cicada casts off its external skeleton, it is not just the outer "covering" that comes off to allow more growth. Apparently, some of the internal body parts are attached and they are discarded and replaced as part of the process. In this case, the white material (which looks like string) is actually the "Tracheae" (breathing tubes) which are connected to the "Spiracles" (small round apertures) on the exoskeleton. When the creature discards the outer covering, these tubes are pulled out at the same time. The animal does not suffer in any way because the new breathing tubes are already in place before any of this takes place. This is all very interesting, but what impressed me even more was the incredibly neat and tidy way in which the cicada wraps the little tubes around an anchor point on the exuvia to give it leverage to pull away from it, leaving all the superfluous parts behind when it flies off. Nature never ceases to amaze me.

Habitat:

This little Exuvia was spotted in our backyard on a Ben Oil Tree (Moringa oleifera) locally known as Malungay. Plant identification - http://www.stuartxchange.org/Malungay