Cicadas

Claire's drawing of a dead cicada

With hopes of improving upon last year, (which I consider to have been highly successful),we begin second grade.  We didn't do so well on our nature notebook last year.  I do feel that we met our goal of spending a huge amount of time outdoors and observing nature and her inner workings, we just don't have anything tangible to show for it!  That is where I hope to improve this year.  So, I am attempting my very first blog!  Our plan is to do nature study/notebook entry on Fridays.  If necessary, we can continue on Saturday. 

August 6, 2010
CICADAS
The finding of a cicada shell and a dead, yet in tact, cicada inspired this nature topic.  We looked up information on cicadas.  This is the narration given by Claire, age7.

A cicada sheds its skin many times as a nymph.  It does not go through a complete metamorphosis like most insects, but instead undergoes an incomplete metamorphosis consisting of 3 instead of 4 stages: egg, nymph, adult.  Other insects that undergo incomplete metamorphosis are grasshoppers, dragonflies, crickets, and squash bugs.

Some people eat cicadas.  The females are more desirable as they are meatier.

Female cicadas lay many eggs in slits which they carve into trees.  Nymphs emerge from these eggs and spend most of their life underground shedding their skins many times as they grow.  A nymph sheds its skin one final time before emerging as an adult.  Adult cicadas do not shed their skin.  We can often find this final skin on doors, walls and trees.

A cicada's eyes are far apart, much like a human's ears.  Its wings are transparent and heavily veined.  Our cicada has a V on its back.