Gregor Samsa Revisited

 Day 259 (Part B): Team Biota's finds are not limited to vascular plants, lichens and the occasional Fungus Of Worldwide Concern. We're searching for the rare and odd in Nature, regardless of species; case in point: this Cicada chrysalis, a discovery which put me immediately in mind of Franz Kafka's "Metamorphosis" and protagonist Gregor Samsa who woke one morning to find himself transformed into a "hideous vermin" (interpreted by many translators to mean a giant bug).

I had not known we had Cicadas in Washington until we found this abandoned husk, although in hindsight, I realize now that I've heard them as a nearly constant background sound on many hikes. Often referred to as "periodic," our local version has a life cycle of four or more years, with much of that spent in the nymphal stage. The adult female uses her ovipositor to pierce a twig where she lays her eggs. The eggs hatch into nymphs, dropping to the ground where they will spend their next several years of life in the soil. As the nymph reaches adulthood, it emerges from the soil to climb a tree, where it then emerges as a fully-winged adult, leaving behind its exoskeleton. The adult does not feed. It lives only to mate, and thus the cycle begins again, Cicadas buzzing in the trees, humming to hikers on the trail.