Whilst staying near Montagnac in the Languedoc during our 2007 trip to France, we were absolutely thrilled when cicadas began emerging around our pitch. In truly typical fashion I had chosen this, of all years, not to pack a tripod – arghh! However, I did have my cable release and managed to rig up a stable support in the form of a table to try to capture what felt like a once-in-a-lifetime natural spectacle. (Actually, a German couple on the adjoining pitch had stayed here several times and seemed to regard the sight as rather mundane but we remain excited by the experience.)
We witnessed all or part of the transformation process of ten cicadas over four days. The time taken to complete and take to the wing varied greatly, apparently depending upon the weather. On cooler days, it took all day whilst on warmer days, they were gone after a couple of hours.
Once above ground, the cicada nymphs seem to climb up anything that happens to be available to provide a base for their emergence. We even discovered an empty nymph case on one of the cables of Carol’s bicycle and that was after driving 100 miles, so tenaciously do they cling.
This particular cicada didn’t seem to mind being “encouraged” onto our guy rope for the purposes of photography.
Our Cicada’s coming out party – the little debutante! | ||||
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