Being a captive is never fun, nor being my pet… Well, better have something for a research than to have myself rotting in the house doing nothing, eh?
We,, cut the crap, technically, it wasn’t me who found this insect. It was my dad and he found it in his garden. And what I did is just locking it in my dungeon, I mean cage.
At first, I planned to sell it for RM 10. Well, I’m not sure about the market for cicada, so don’t bother if the price is too high or too low. Well, wasn’t really trying to make any big cash, just trying my luck.
And, what I have researched about cicadas is a higher profit than the money I get from selling it. Alright, here’s some facts about cicadas, do correct me if I’m wrong anyway.
- Cicada live as nymphs underground since birth for as long as approximately seventeen years, varies among species. Grown-ups only live as short as two to three weeks. Some live for two day or less. (What a life!)
- Females have blade-like ovipositors visible on the bottom surface of the abdomen, and the males do not. (That’s girl power, eh?)
- Males possess a pair of sound-producing or ‘singing’ organs located on the sides of the first abdominal segment. Their own built-in sound system makes the loudest sound in the insect world, which can be carried for up to a mile. (Males always make the loudest noise, don’t they?)
- Female cicadas lay eggs in the twigs of trees and shrubs, in small holes they make with the saw-like organ near the tip of the abdomen. And they can lay four hundred to six hundred eggs.
- Each species has its own distinctive sound and only attracts females of its own kind even though rather similar species may co-exist. (They are rather racist…hmmm)
- After the adults have mated both will die. (So, they live for seventeen years doing nothing, mate and die… wonderful…=_=)
- Different species can be heard at different times of the day. While some prefer mating during the day, others prefer the evening hours. (They are even working on shifts…!)
- Cicadas feed by piercing the surface of plants with their mouth stylets, sucing up the plant sap through a tube formed by the concave surfaces of two of the stylets.
- Cicadas have large compound eyes situated one on each side of the head. They also have three very small glistening simple eyes (ocelli) on the top of the head. (They have so many eyes!!!)



