Jon is a local independent naturalist, seasoned tracker, and founder & director of the Minnesota Wildlife Tracking Project<\/a>. He <\/em>posts monthly Natural Mystery questions and answers on www.mntracking.org. As his site is going down soon for maintenance, I’m delighted to host this answer.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n +++<\/span><\/p>\n August 2021 Natural Mystery. Click to enlarge.<\/p><\/div>\n We got a good number of answers to last month’s Natural Mystery<\/a>\u2014and all were correct. Too bad I didn’t post something like this two years ago. I got this question wrong on my 2019 New England Specialist evaluation. But these sharp readers were not fooled. Congratulations to John Arthur, Emily Goldberg, Mike Holtz, Kathy Johnson, Bill Kass, Lin Mulhern, Carol Stiteler & Kirsten Welge for correctly identifying this and sharing your answers with the rest of us.<\/span><\/p>\n This is a cicada exuvia\u2014the shed exoskeleton of an annual or \u201cdog day\u201d cicada nymph.<\/span><\/p>\n I\u2019ll let Mike Holtz start us off with a simple description of what we see in this photo:<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cCicada nymphs live underground. When they emerge, they cling to a plant or tree trunk, and shed the exoskeleton, which is left clinging there.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n +++<\/span><\/p>\n Kathy Johnson gives us a little more info about annual cicadas, and notes that she regularly finds these exuvia in a local garden, under spruce trees:<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cCicada eggs are laid on trees. The young hatch after 6-8 weeks then make their way into the soil to feed on tree & plant roots for 4-8 years (in MN). When the soil reaches a certain temperature, they crawl out of the ground and attach themselves to a vertical plant or tree, where they molt: the exoskeleton splits and the insect pulls themselves out (much like a monarch butterfly does out of a chrysalis). The remaining exoskeleton is what is pictured.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n +++<\/span><\/p>\n Emily Goldberg adds:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cSince the nymphs are ground-dwelling and the adults are winged, the nymphs have to climb to an exposed location before they can do their final molt\u2014which apparently takes them a good few hours. I don’t know of any other nymphs in Minnesota that are that large and have the “clinging to trees” characteristic.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n +++<\/span><\/p>\n Bill Kass gives us a little more information about identifying cicada nymphs:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n “There are several insects that will shed skin out of a larval stage, many that are in this same order of insects, but none are quite this size. Two characteristics of this \u2018true bug\u2019 are the very large eyes and front legs\/claws used for digging in the soil. Those characteristics along with the robust body tells us this is one of several species of a cicada.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n +++<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Kirsten Welge similarly notes:<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe size and shape, including the leading appendages, are a match for the cicadas that emerge each summer. From National Geographic: \u2018Cicadas are members of the superfamily Cicadoidea and are physically distinguished by their stout bodies, broad heads, clear-membraned wings, and large compound eyes.\u2019 As this exoskeleton was found in your St Paul backyard, it is an annual cicada (<\/span><\/i>Tibicen<\/span> spp.). From my reading, I note the famous Brood X periodical cicadas (<\/span><\/i>Magicicada<\/span> spp.) don’t occur in Minnesota.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n Kirsten also noted that <\/span>\u201cthe adult will survive about 4-6 weeks after emergence.\u201d <\/span><\/i>During this time, as Bill notes, <\/span>\u201cthey will then make a <\/span><\/i>very<\/i><\/b> loud call looking for a mate.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n This call, which is often described in modern times as sounding like the buzz of a power line, is a familiar sound of the \u201cdog days\u201d of summer.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Several of you noted that there is lots of great information about cicadas online. If you would like to read more, here are a few good places to start:<\/span><\/p>\n And for a picture of a mature adult emerging from its nymph exoskeleton, check out: https:\/\/www.insidescience.org\/news\/brood-x-cicadas-have-arrived<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n Have you ever wondered where the phrase \u201cdog days of summer\u201d comes from? It\u2019s an eons old expression with astronomical origins. I\u2019ve found a number of pretty good descriptions online, but few take the procession of the equinoxes into account, and get the dates wrong as a result. This is a fun one to research.<\/span><\/p>\n You may also be wondering what I put down for this on my New England Specialist eval. That exuva was located close to a pond, and I guessed a dragonfly nymph. Dragonfly nymphs, like <\/span>this one<\/span><\/a>, have a bit of a different shape and lack the large front legs adapted for digging seen in the cicadas.<\/span><\/p>\n Congratulations and thanks again to Bill, Carol, Emily, John, Kathy, Kirsten, Lin & Mike for cracking this Natural Mystery for the rest of us.<\/span><\/p>\n +++<\/span><\/p>\n If you enjoy these natural mysteries, please consider supporting the Minnesota Wildlife Tracking Project newsletter on <\/span>Patreon<\/span><\/a> or <\/span>buy me a coffee<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n![\"Click](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/naturalawarenessguide.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/August-Natural-Mystery-photo-4-mp.jpg?resize=310%2C232&ssl=1\")
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![this one<\/span><\/a>, have a bit of a different shape and lack the large front legs adapted for digging seen in the cicadas.<\/span><\/p>\nCongratulations and thanks again to Bill, Carol, Emily, John, Kathy, Kirsten, Lin & Mike for cracking this Natural Mystery for the rest of us.<\/span><\/p>\n+++<\/span><\/p>\nSupport the Newsletter<\/b><\/h3>\nIf you enjoy these natural mysteries, please consider supporting the Minnesota Wildlife Tracking Project newsletter on <\/span>Patreon<\/span><\/a> or <\/span>buy me a coffee<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\nhttps:\/\/www.patreon.com\/poppele<\/span><\/a><\/p>\nhttps:\/\/www.buymeacoffee.com\/MNTracking<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Guest Post by Jonathan Poppele Jon is a local independent naturalist, seasoned tracker, and founder & director of the Minnesota Wildlife Tracking Project. He posts monthly Natural Mystery questions andContinue reading →<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-642","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","no-thumb"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naturalawarenessguide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naturalawarenessguide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naturalawarenessguide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naturalawarenessguide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naturalawarenessguide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=642"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/naturalawarenessguide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":98822,"href":"https:\/\/naturalawarenessguide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642\/revisions\/98822"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naturalawarenessguide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naturalawarenessguide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=642"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naturalawarenessguide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}](\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Metamorphosis_of_a_dragonfly_The_final_stages_(7343478720).jpg\"){kind=link}