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Cicada


Cicada
Photo Information
Copyright: Nikos Nikolaou (nikosrio) Silver Star Critiquer/Gold Note Writer [C: 46 W: 0 N: 64] (345)
Genre: Animals
Medium: Color
Date Taken: 2008-07-08
Categories: Insects
Camera: Nikon D80, Nikkor Af-S micro 105mm VR f/2.8G IF ED
Exposure: f/9.5, 1/90 seconds
More Photo Info: [view]
Map: [view]
Photo Version: Original Version
Date Submitted: 2008-07-08 8:59
Viewed: 396
Points: 16
[Note Guidelines] Photographer's Note
A cicada is an insect of the order Homoptera, suborder Auchenorrhyncha, in the superfamily Cicadoidea, with large eyes wide apart on the head and usually transparent, well-veined wings. There are about 2,500 species of cicada around the globe, and many remain unclassified. Cicadas live in temperate to tropical climates where they are among the most widely recognized of all insects, mainly due to their large size and remarkable acoustic talents. Cicadas are sometimes colloquially called "locusts",[1] although they are unrelated to true locusts, which are a kind of grasshopper. They are also known as "jar flies". Cicadas are related to leafhoppers and spittlebugs.

The song of the cicada is not the only thing that commends it to the attention of the ancient Greeks and many other human observers. The emergence of the nymph from the ground in which it has spent several months or years, the shedding of its integument and the deployment of its wings as it begins its adult phase is another process that stimulates the curiosity and often the admiration of the human observer. This whole sequence of events was briefly but accurately described in the fourth century B.C. by the great Greek polymath Aristotle in his work entitled Historia Animalium (i.e. Investigation of Living Things). There is nothing in the description offered by Aristotle that could not have been viewed by any unsophisticated observer in the preceding centuries, and it is observations of this sort that generated such widespread beliefs as the one that the cicada was "born from the earth," or that it was capable of resurrection and therefore an appropriate symbol of immortality. A related belief is that by shedding its skin and sprouting wings on its fresh white body it could realize perpetual youth. Another popular belief, again based on observation, was that the cicada subsisted entirely on a diet of dew or on dew and air. The notion that they fed on air might have derived from examination of the large empty space in their abdomen. As for the dew in their diet; it is probably owing to observations, such as have been made by many moderns, of quantities of fluid in and around the trees which the insects infest. In reality the fluid has probably oozed from the holes bored through the bark by the xylem-feeding insects or some of it might be profuse quantities of liquid excrement that a tree-full of sap-imbibing insects can produce.
crs, siggi, maurydv, CatherineD has marked this note useful
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Critiques [Translate]

  • Great 
  • crs Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Note Writer [C: 276 W: 0 N: 404] (1653)
  • [2008-07-08 9:35]

Hi Nikos,

You have made a very nice photo of the cicade. The image has an excelen quality. The DOF is very good keeping in focus the entire body of the insect. The way you used the light is also very good obtaining very natural looking colors.

Thank you for sharing,
Cristian

  • Great 
  • siggi Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Note Writer [C: 289 W: 3 N: 788] (2822)
  • [2008-07-08 10:26]

Hi Nikos
Excellent cicada shot
Great POV
Great sharpness and DOF
Good composition.
Siggi

Splendida macro, eccellenti POV, DOF e composizione verticale con il bellissimo BG, straordinarie nitidezza e definizione dei dettagli, molto belli i colori. Grazie e complimenti. Ciao Maurizio

Hello Nikos....perfection... everything about this is good, details, focus, colours and POv..

Geia sou Niko,
Very nice shot with good colours and great details. Well done!
Xairetw,
Katerina

Hi,
excellent photo, sharp details of the cicade body
regards
Ryszard

Beautiful shot, sorry, the comp's got a virus, and the techie's not oome in still!
Goldy

  • Great 
  • eliz Silver Star Critiquer/Gold Note Writer [C: 38 W: 0 N: 80] (450)
  • [2008-10-05 0:21]

what a strange insect. you think this is from another planet

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