Cicadas are a key atmospheric element of summertime in New Jersey (and most States for that matter). Whether you realize it or not, the daytime summer soundtrack of your yard, parks and hiking trails includes the song of cicadas. Cicadas rule the day and crickets and katydids rule the night. At dusk and dawn they trade places, keeping the sounds of the 24-hour nature club pumping. There’s a species of cicada in the eastern United States called the Morning Cicada, because it sings in the Morning. It is also known as a Swamp Cicada, but you can find them just about anywhere, not just Swamps. Their scientific taxonomic name is Neotibicen tibicen tibicen. Tibicen means “a flute player” in Latin, which makes sense as cicadas are musical creatures.
Every summer I witness the nighttime emergence and molting of dozens of these Swamp Cicadas. After dusk I check the ground for the movement of brown acorn-sized nymphs, which emerge from holes in the ground near trees and somehow find their way to a vertical surface — usually a tree trunk. After 10pm, they’ve usually found a branch or bark to lock their claws into. Then they start their molting process — splitting their old skin, pushing their way out, re-arranging their face so their eyes sit wide apart, and inflating and hardening their wings. When they first molt, their bodies are mostly green, with hits of blue, pink and yellowish hues. There eyes are most-often emerald green, but they can include blends of green and blue, all the way to a dark jade green. After some time, their colors darken, but they always retain the green color in their wings and legs (another name for them is Chloromera, which means green thighs in Greek).
This cicada has successfully molted and has moved its wings into the shape of a tent, partially enclosing its body:
This male cicada, has just molted and is still clinging to its old skin. Its wings are not in the tent position yet:
This female cicada, has just molted and has just started to inflate its wings.
This cicada is still wearing its nymph skin. It decided to stop atop some sticky sap. I checked back later — it molted without getting stuck:
This cicada is halfway out of its old skin. Lots of green and blue:
This female cicada is backlit by my camera light. You can see through its old skin:
