Cicada

Last week, I happened to go back to my hometown to visit my grand aunt in Taiping. As usual, we had our dinner but this time I heard a very familiar sound nearby. I am very sure it was a Cicada.

This picture taken in a very simple setup using a camera and torch light with a few seconds of exposure.

Usually, this type of Cicada can be seen in Taiping when it is close to Chinese New Year. Most of its life cycle is in underground. Only the last part of its life, the Cicada will tranform into adulthood(known as 'Imago'), emerge from the underground and fly out to mate before it dies.



It may looks scary but in fact, it is quite defenseless against predator such as birds and are benign to human. All it could do is to make a very loud noise(the males only..) when being caught. The numbers have been hugely decline compared to what I saw during my childhood. I could see only a handful of them while strolling around the Lake garden. Some source said that the change in the vegetation i.e parennial plants replaced by short-lived plants may likely to affect the cicada population.



All the above pictures are adult Cicadas with average size of about 1.5 to 2 inches long. At this very last stage, they do not eat but only take in fluid to keep hydrated considering they only live for about a few week.