creepy insect husk pictures

[elanya]

I was waiting for the bus the other day, and I saw this creepy giant bug perched on the bus shelter frame. It kind of looked like a big wingless bee, so of course I was intrigued.... except it didn't seem to be doing anything. Further investigation revealed that it was just a shell. Was it some kind of larvae? Eater from the inside out by a spider? Who can say! It was firmly grabbing on to the post, even in death, in impressive defiance of gravity. I poked it but it stayed stuck there. It is gone now - I wonder what happened to it?

ETA: It is a cicada shell (thanks aghrivaine!)




A bit of a perspective shot. the thing was probably about three or four inches long (6-8 cm?)


Here you can see where it is split open along the back, and hollowed out inside


One from the other side - check the spiderwebs


And one looking down from above, for extreme creepy!

Comments

[elanya.livejournal.com]

Cool! I wondered, but I didn't know that cicadas moulted. I certainly hear enough of them around though :o

[aghrivaine.livejournal.com]

Yep. My dog used to go bonkers leaping up onto the trunks of trees to knock the skins down and eat them.

And many's the grade school science project that involved the morphology of the cicada pupa, I can tell you!