Sounds of the forest: part 3

A couple weeks ago, we started noticing a bunch of holes in the ground around our blueberry bushes and elsewhere. They looked like they had been perfectly bored, like an aerator would make. Then a week ago, I saw this sitting on one of the blueberry branches:

I didn’t think to photograph the holes, but I did promptly tell the rest of the fam about the “huge bug” I had just found. I did not have a clue that this was a cicada or that they live most of their lives underground (sometimes 13 or 17 years in the case of periodical cicadas). It was captured (not by me, I must add), placed in my Cale’s new bug box and brought into the house (which I should be used to since the same sequence of events occurred for the gypsy moth caterpillar seen here). Here it is, photographed by Steve:

I am learning that this one must have just emerged because it hadn’t darkened in color yet. I haven’t determined which species it is because I squirm when looking at too many creepy bug photos. But anyway, this post is supposed to be about sounds. High in the trees we now hear the motor-like buzz, the males attempting to attract a mate. It won’t last long, only a few weeks and then the adult life above ground will have ended.

(And yes, the bug was promptly returned to a tree outside.)