Date: Fri, 14 May 2004 19:34:15 -0400
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>
From: Candy Madigan <candymadigan at mindspring.com>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Cicadas
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>

The spaceship landing sound is there.  It's still fairly faint.  I can
actually hear it better with the windows closed (early this morning before
I needed the AC) than with the windows open.  When I opened the windows,
the other sounds outside nearly drowned them out.  The spaceship landing
sound will get louder over the next month or so.  Last time it was after
Disclave that the sound really got loud.  So June or July.

At 12:53 PM 5/14/2004, you wrote:
>Yesterday, during evening twilight, I brought in a wingless cicada
>that was walking on the sidewalk.  I put it in the kitchen sink.
>It looked like it was trying to climb, so I stood an empty paper
>towel roll on end.  The insect soon found it, climbed it to the top,
>circumnavigated it a couple times trying to find a way to climb
>higher, and then stopped.
>
>Over the next hour it molted.  It was a fascinating process.  It
>leaves behind its brown skin, and emerges as a white creature with
>four white stubs where wings belong.  Over the next hour the wings
>gradually unfurl and turn golden, and the rest of the insect turns
>from perfectly white to perfectly black.
>
>It's still apparently unable to fly, though it can make a controlled
>landing when tossed.  I'll continue to keep an eye on it.
>
>Those of you with children -- or with the curiosity and sense of
>wonder of a child -- might want to do the same.  There are plenty
>of cicadas to go around.
>
>I too wonder what Steve means by an area being less than 17 years old.
>There are plenty of places with buildings on now them that had no
>buildings on them 17 years ago.  But so what?  Cicadas aren't indoor
>creatures.
>--
>Keith F. Lynch - http://keithlynch.net/
>Please see http://keithlynch.net/email.html before emailing me.

Candy

P.S. I don't have any pictures yet, but see my new web-site at
www.hourglass-creations.com