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cicada bloom
This is a cicada right after shedding its exoskeleton!!!!! So wild!!!! These images aren't in chronological order, but you can swipe through to see some documentation, or read on for the play by play.
My sons and I were collecting exoskeletons to experiment with, and my oldest found one that was literally on the verge of shedding.
We scrambled to get our gear, thinking I was about to do an overnight time lapse. By the time we got back to the cicada, it was halfway out!! This happened around sunset and it took about 5 minutes for it to go from fully encased, to completely free.
The truly bizarre part was how fast the creature unfolded! It was spreading its wings and climbing all over the place like a boss within 3 minutes.