Circada

One evening about a week and a half ago, we had the house all opened up so that we could enjoy the nice breeze, & I complained to Tom that our neighbor must be cutting something down again as his saw was so loud & had been running for so long! Well, I thought Tom was going to bust his gut as he was laughing so hard! He told me the sound came from the circadas, & hadn't I ever heard them before?? I probably did but never paid attention, & was it ever loud!! We closed up the windows because it was so hard to hear the TV! Today I was out walking around the yard, & I saw this! I thought it was the ugliest thing I've ever seen--almost looks prehistoric! I was amazed that I got so close without it moving, but when I looked from another angle, I realized it was just the shell, as the entire back was split open! I had to look it up & found that it's an "annual or dog day" circada. They live underground eating tree roots for 1 to 5 years, & when they emerge they begin to metamorphose into flying insects, leaving their exoskeleton behind. Only the males sing & are among the loudest insects on earth-----I can attest to that----& I read that they "disable" their ears so they don't deafen themselves.
According to folklore, the first frost should happen about 6 weeks after they appear, which would put us somewhere around Oct. 5th---about a week & a half earlier than normal--I'm going to watch for the first frost & see how accurate they are!! :)