17 Year Cicadas: Emerging Process

Looks like 17 year cicadas are emerging all over the place here in Northern Illinois.

Here you can see all stages of the molting process.

Step one: crawl onto something and split open the top of your shell.

Step two: fully exit your shell.

Step three: wait until your wings inflate to full size.

Step four: sit aroubd and let your exoskeleton harden.

Step five: now that your exoskeleton is fully hardened sit around and wait for a mate.

Be sure you are shiny as possible to dazzle potential mates.

Step one for humans: clean up all the cicada shells off the side of ypur building... Remember to bring your earplugs, the cicadas are noisy.