Yuck! Look What the Hubby Dragged In

[Mum2J&M]

So my husband took the kids to the pool for the day and I spent my morning photographing this guy. Ceceda I think? Noisy things. Not a fantastic pic, but it gives you some idea. Ick. Got to go wash my hands.

[PacAce]

It's a cicada and there's nothing yucky about them. I used to play with it all the time when I was a kid. Even had some theat were two to three inches long. You can't get any cleaner than cicadas as far as insects go.

BTW, what happened to it's abdomen? Maybe that's why it was all "yucky" for you.

[Mum2J&M]

Not sure what happened to the rest of it, but I was looking at some pics online and I wondered if maybe that's how they "shed" their shells or something? Maybe he/she outgrew it? LOL. Or maybe the ants just got to it. This one is about 2 inches long. Don't some people actually fry these and eat them?

[PacAce]

Here are two pictures that I took a couple of years ago of a cicada that was just emerging from its outgrown exoskeleton. The one it shed was the one it had when it was still living in the ground. When the time was right, it climbed out of the ground, up a tree and then just split open the back of the exoskeleton and worked its way out of it. The new exoskeleton looks pale because it hadn't hardened yet.

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I've never eaten cicadas but I have read that they are eaten in some countries. As much as I don't mind handling cicadas, I don't know if I could ever get myself to munch on one, though.

[Mum2J&M]

Wow - those are some nasty a$$ looking things, lol. I was watching some show and people here in the States were actually "celebrating" them by frying them up and eating them. They supposedly taste really good.... gaaaaaag.

[DVS_WiNdz]

hmm.. I've never seen one of those before.. they look kind of nasty

[BottomBracket]

Those cicadas spend 17 years underground before they crawl out into the open, molt, and fly.

[Bledzo]

Thank God we don't get these in Scotland, too cold for the wee buggers. I am off the noo to shoot down some haggis or is that haggae never to sure about the pronounciation and will post the results ha ha.

[Mum2J&M]

Is that intestines? My husband's from England and I wouldn't touch half of what he eats, lol. He just sent an email from the park saying there's a praying mantis there. I told him to bring it home so I could take a picture. Is that bad luck?

[rhys]

Well, I'm Welsh and spent some time in Scotland. You wouldn't believe the number of tourists that try to chase haggises across the hillside. They see one and try to chase it. Of course, as they have one pair of legs shorter than the other in order to negotiate Scotland's hills better, they tend to run in circles on flat ground. The trick behind catching them is not to chase them anyway - they're far too fast. Vicious things too - I've heard of people having to get tetenus injections after being bitten by them. The way to catch a haggis - a wild haggis - not the kind that are sold in the shops already cooked - is to stand on flat ground with a big club giving their mating call. You have to stand on one leg with the club held aloft while calling "burble-burble". They come to you and you hit them over the head with the club. Then run off with them quickly as they're an endagered species in the wild. Those you find in the shops are farm raised.

[mikerault]

Here is one from Mazatlan:



Mike

[Redser]

We don't have wild haggis in Ireland - you rarely even see them in captivity these days - but tofu hunting is a popular sport. They're very elusive little things, but worth the effort; they're very tasty, and a tofu fur coat is never out of fashion.

[nicksan]

Not yucky at all. I also used to play with them as a child.
They are pretty neat "bugs"!

[Mum2J&M]

I'm not quite sure what a "noo" is, but I believe he meant "shooting" as in eating, yes? Is the haggis the actual "casing" for those yummy meat dishes (gag)?

[Nanboh]

Here's some from this summer just as they emerged: