Cicadas

For several days, Pete has been fussing around the base of the trees and today I discovered why. He has found masses of cicadas which he is eating, even to the extent that he threw up yesterday!
Apparently we are at the beginning of a 17 year emergence and may expect to see these beauties around for some time! They are just beginning to fly. Usually, we hear a lot of noise from these cicadas, but I haven't heard them yet. They are interesting beasts. The females lay their eggs in the twigs of trees and when the nymphs emerge they drop to the ground and burrow into the earth. They may go down several feet. They have a cyclical life cycle which in this part of the world is 17 years. They emerge after spending all this time underground feeding on the sap of tree roots. AFter they emerge and go through the last molt, the empty exoskeletons are often found left on tree trunks.
The photographs show two adults, the mass of cicadas at the foot of a tree and a couple on the leaves of a daylily.

A sunny warm day with some wind and we are hoping that there will be some drying of the ground.
Thank you for all the stars and comments on the raindrop and the little bug yesterday. We think that was some sort of flower fly with its iridescent wings.