- Title: Time-lapse shows creepy beauty of cicada emerging from outer shell
- Date: 20th May 2021
- Summary: WASHINGTON, D.C., UNITED STATES (MAY 18, 2021) (REUTERS) TIME-LAPSE VIDEO SHOWING A CICADA THAT HAS EMERGED FROM THE GROUND AFTER 17 YEARS (KNOWN AS A 'MATURE NYMPH' AT THIS STAGE OF LIFE) ON A TREE TRUNK WHERE IT IS HALF-EMERGING FROM ITS HARD EXOSKELETON (ALSO DESCRIBED AS A CLAWED CARAPACE OR BONY CASE) TO BECOME A WINGED ADULT TIME-LAPSE VIDEO CONTINUES AS THE CICADA STRETCHES ITS SOFT WHITE BODY FURTHER OUT OF THE EXOSKELETON TIME-LAPSE VIDEO CONTINUES AS THE CICADA'S WINGS BEGIN TO EXPAND SLIGHTLY AND IT PULLS ITS SOFT BODY BACK TOWARDS THE TREE TRUNK TIME LAPSE VIDEO CONTINUES AS THE CICADA 'HOPS' OUT OF ITS EXOSKELETON AND ONTO THE TREE TRUNK TIME LAPSE VIDEO CONTINUES FROM A NEW CAMERA ANGLE AS THE CICADA RESTS ON THE TREE TRUNK AND ITS NEW WINGS FULLY EXPAND TIGHTER SHOT OF THE TIME LAPSE CAMERA ANGLE IN SHOT 5 AS THE NEWLY-MOLTED CICADA SLOWLY CLIMBS THE TREE TRUNK AND MOVES OUT OF CAMERA SHOT
- Embargoed: 3rd June 2021 17:55
- Keywords: exoskeleton hatched molting periodical cicada shedding
- Location: WASHINGTON, D.C., UNITED STATES
- City: WASHINGTON, D.C., UNITED STATES
- Country: USA
- Topics: Environment,Nature/Wildlife,United States,Editors' Choice
- Reuters ID: LVA001EDRPYYV
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Time-lapse video reveals the creepy beauty of a periodical cicada molting out of its hard outer shell to become a soft-bodied winged adult member of 'Brood X'.
This shedding process is being repeated by the billions -- and possibly by the trillions -- across the eastern United States during a once-every-17-year emergence of the winged insects this summer.
The periodical cicadas generally emerge at night from the ground where they spent the last 17 years feasting on tree and plant roots.
They hold the record for the "longest juvenile period of any insect," writes University of Maryland entomologist Dr. Michael Raupp on his website "The Bug Guy".
Following their mass disinterment from the ground -- their 'jailbreak' -- they head typically at dawn for the first vertical structure they can find: a tree, a bush, a pole or garden wall.
At this stage of their life cycle, they are called a mature nymph. They will spend hours slowly shedding their hard exoskeleton to reveal a soft, white, winged, adult body.
But the cicada's 17-year-long road to full maturity is dotted with last-minute pitfalls.
The wings can take hours to fully expand and the newly-molted body could take four to six days to harden, according to Raupp.
That leaves the newly-molted adults especially "helpless" and vulnerable at this stage, he writes on his website.
Once the adult cicada's new body has hardened, it can to fly to treetops to find its mate, Raupp says.
But "many cicadas fail their final molt and die," he writes, "cutting short a 17-year marathon within sight of the finish line."
(Production: Carlos Barria, Kevin Fogarty, Mana Rabiee) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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