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Periodical cicada nymphs from Brood XIII are crawling out of the earth and moulting on trees, leaving husks like in the picture. For the next several weeks they'll be everywhere in the affected area. Then they lay their eggs in young tree trunks and other such supple plant stems, which hatch later in the summer only to burrow back into the earth for 17 more years.
I may return with other cicada facts as more come out. Very curious to see if it's any different from the last time in 2007 due to climate change
I genuinely don't understand how cicadas are viable as a species. Why don't they all get eaten when they're just hanging out for decades. It would seem like they're literally the ultimate prey animal for any insectivore.
99% of that time is spent up to 8 feet underground where they're pretty much immune to predation. They are very, very easy prey when above ground, which is why there's so many of them. While lots get eaten enough manage to mate and lay eggs that the next generation is ready to roll!
Where are the cicada eating moles is my query I suppose. But I just read that their deep burial (as you mentioned) and the length of their slumber followed by awakening en masse prevents most predators from adapting to their whole deal.
yup, pretty much. apparently they can vary from 1 to 8 feet deep, with the former not being too unreasonable for moles to reach since they dig at that level to sleep, they just hunt much closer to the surface. if only they knew!
Now I'm reading about moles. I need to prepare for my stint as a narodnik but for telling moles to go down a bit for num nums. Googling anything about moles is depressing, because the first results on any basic question ie gonna be about how to kill them