These bugs are teenagers

The ghost of Cicada.

This evening our walk was once again in the dark.  On our way through the yard I noticed a familiar site.  The exsoskeleton of a Cicada or 17 year locust was attached to the bark of the large pine in the back yard.  Here in our area the Cicadas emerge each summer in small numbers.  There are parts of the south that can experience extremely high hatch outs some years.   There may be thousands of the noisy insects in one tree all making a buzzing sound like a door or phone buzzer.  It can be deafening.  Here we may only see 4 or 5 dig their way out of the ground, climb a few feet up a tree and then they pop out of their shells as in my photo.  They leave the old shell behind and emerge as a flying insect their only task to find a mate and lay eggs.  The eggs will be laid under the surface of the soil and will grow for approximately 17 years before digging their way out and starting the process over again.  Next we walked on down toward the east end of the paved road and I noticed that I could now see the bands of the Milky Way directly overhead.  I could also see the Big Dipper or Ursa major to the north.   The weather is slowly but surely warming again.  The humidity is edging slightly higher each night and we should begin to see thunder storms out in the Gulf of Mexico each night.  Sooner or later it will rain again.  Thanks for reading my blog tonight.  Bye