Yesterday, Alexandra found a dead cicada in the pool. She fished it out and we photographed it and realized it was a different species that the one we photographed a couple of weeks ago.
We brought it in and saved it so we could look at it with our digital microscope in the morning. This morning, he was gone! I really thought he must have fallen on the floor or something. We'd played with this "dead" cicada for about 15 minutes yesterday and it hadn't moved at all.
I finally found him about 2 feet away sitting on the side of a plate! He was alive!!! Well, I moved the plate outside and was hoping he'd sit still enough for me to get him under the microscope. He did and I got a few good photos, though he'd crawl around sometimes.
Finally, I was done photographing him and Alexandra wanted to hold him. I told her he was probably going to die soon. He actually tried to fly a few times, but fell over on his back buzzing his wings. Then, he was crawling up Alexandra's arm, and all of a sudden... he took off! He flew across the yard and high up into a pine tree! What a shock!
Anyway, I LOVED his eyes. They are a beatiful grey, compound eye. You can see them without a spot from the light on the top photo if you enlarge it. The second 2 are taken with our microscope.
5 comments:
Totally awesome photos and story....can't believe it.
You need to run not walk to the Mark Kistler drawing class. We took a summer camp class two summers ago and it was a blast. He has such a great personality and the kids love him. He even had all the parents staying and drawing. He had the kids bring their friends to draw with them for free. He is an amazing, inspirational man.
Don't pass this one up.
Barb-Harmony Art Mom
Wow, Dana! Those photos are amazing! GB and I are going to take a microscope class with our homeschooling group, and I'm hoping they have a microscope like yours for me to play with. We may come home with an early Christmas present.
So you are finding visitors in your pool too? I've posted about a few that I found too. http://sunrisetosunset123.blogspot.com/2007/10/cleaning-pool.html
That is just one. The pool is my favorite nature walk stop.
Martha
What amazing shots of those eyes!!
The same thing happened with us. We found one in our poll and brought it in. Carter carried it around for a while then we put in on a shelf. The next morning, Madison told me that it was alive....it was!!! It did, however, end up dying. We put it on our insect board.
I can't believe you got those amazing photos!
Jeannie Fulbright has an experiment in her Zoology 1 book where you drowned an insect, then "bring it back to life" by sprinkling salt on it. I don't know the details because we haven't gotten to it, but I think you are on her Yahoo list aren't you? You could ask about it there. She calls it the Lazurus experiment.
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