Cicada

For starters, yes - or perhaps no, this cicada is not alive. I found it on our walk this morning and brought it along home with me. I believe it's one of the annual cicadas, rather than one of the periodic cicadas (the ones that appear in enormous numbers every 13, 15 or 17 years or so). It's larger than the "seventeen year 'locusts' " that we had massive swarms of a few years ago. On any summer's day you can usually hear a cicada or two off and on. Cicadas, oddly, are one of an increasing number of insects that I'm not afraid to pick up - even when they're still alive!