This morning I stepped outside and heard a bizarre trilling from high in the treetops. It was a mid-toned shrill  that had a rapid rattle to it--like a coach's whistle with an ill-fitted ball. The song was joined by others, which together gave the woods and field a spooky liveliness. As each whistle ended, its pitch quickly fell away with a melancholy sweep, as if the lungs of the player had suddenly run out of air.  But cicadas don't use lungs: Their cacophony is produced from vibrating membranes called tymbals located on the sides of their abdomens.  After a weekend of rain these insects are out thick, and the males are making noise.

The matching wing was lying a foot away from this one. The owner may have served as an early bird breakfast.

The empty exoskeleton of a cicada that had probably molted during the night. 

 If you'd like to learn more about cicadas and other insects, check out the following books and DVDs. (Be advised: these products will likely offer an evolutionary history of their stars.)

The DVD series that the cicada YouTube video I linked to a couple weeks ago originally came from is called Life in the Undergrowth. It's a fascinating BBC documentary about the lives and abilities of different insects and ground-dwelling invertebrates. Although it's rather heavy-handed with evolutionist dogma, the cinematography is stunning and you'll learn creepy things about spiders, worms, and slugs you never knew. Minus the evolution, highly recommended.

For an informative and readable resource on insects, try the Firefly Encyclopedia of Insects and Spiders. It's illustrated with 240 pages.

If you'd like a field guide for identifying bugs next time you go hiking, get the National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Insects and Spiders.

And if you're really an insect nerd, get the technical guide to insect bodies, The Insects: Structure and Function. This 788-page textbook is not for the faint at heart.

Meanwhile, the Creation Museum in Cincinnati has officially opened; I have a "correspondent" there today who has promised to provide us all with some pictures of the museum's first day of being open to the public. I plan to visit myself in a couple weeks. My correspondent, Jay, told me security is tight at the grounds, yesterday he walked up to the locked front gate and was immediately approached and questioned by a guard on an ATV. During the ribbon cutting ceremony on Saturday evolutionist groups protested nearby. Sounds exciting.

cicada photos copyright Daniel James Devine. you may use them on your site if you credit the author.