Rare photo shows 'extraordinary moment' in Aussie bush amid cicada 'explosion' this summer
The 'amazing photos' reveal the alien-like transition that has been happening around the country.
You can definitely hear them, but you might not always see them. Especially like this.
Aussie wildlife rangers have shared the incredible and rarely seen moment a cicada sheds its exoskeleton – a key transition into adulthood after emerging from a years-long subterranean stint.
"Two of our rangers snapped these amazing photos," the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service shared on Saturday.
"While we’re used to seeing cicadas out and about, capturing them at the extraordinary moment when they leave behind their 'nymphal skin' to become an adult is rare," the service said.
If you've been hearing their famously loud chorus in recent weeks, there's good reason for that as there are more cicadas this summer than usual. That's in part due to a big batch of greengrocer cicadas, which have a "unique" seven-year life cycle, emerging this year.
"Huge numbers of greengrocer cicada nymphs emerge from underground, leading to an explosion of adult cicadas," NSW wildlife officials explained.
"Scientists are still figuring out exactly why this is the case, but some believe this schedule means cicadas avoid peak predator populations."
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According to wildlife officials, it's estimated there are as many 1,000 species of cicadas in Australia, but there's still plenty of mystery as only about half of those have been properly described.
One of those scientists desperately trying to describe them (before climate change and habitat loss push them to potential extinction) is Professor David Emery, an insect and parasite expert at the University of Sydney.
Speaking to Yahoo News Australia after returning from a cicada hunting trip in the NSW Northern Tablelands and Mid North Coast, he said it's been "an amazing year" for observing the species.
"We collect the specimens and describe them before we ruin their environment. Once we know what they are, we put them in museums for future reference," he told Yahoo News last week.
"I'm describing them like crazy as fast as I can. I try to describe four every year,” he said. "But we just haven’t got enough people on the ground looking for them."
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