Okay, I can't believe that I have never seen one of these bugs before, seeing as you can hear them buzzin' in the trees like every day in the summer. Anyway, we were blessed with a simultaneous display (on 2 different trees) of the immersion of a cicada bug from it's old shell. If you aren't curious or are disgusted by bugs - don't bother reading on. A little bit of history (thanks wikipedia):"The insects spend most of the time that they are underground as nymphs at depths ranging from about 30 cm (1 ft) up to 2.5 m (about 8½ ft). The nymphs feed on root juice and have strong front legs for digging. In the final nymphal instar, they construct an exit tunnel to the surface and emerge. They then molt (shed their skins), on a nearby plant for the last time and emerge as adults. The abandoned skins remain, still clinging to the bark of trees". So we were able to watch, pretty much from start to finish, the fascinating but pretty disgusting molting process. Riley was totally into it. She went on to tell Mark (who made the initial discovery) all about her bug book and how she knew the rules about bugs, that you don't touch or disturb them, and then you can watch them and follow them to see what they do. (so cute).Not so cute - the bug - check out the stop animated process: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cicada
gross!
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