Cicada

I've posted about Cicadas on several occasions previously including last year entitled Jiminy Cricket.  The last couple of days the Cicadas have been appearing.  Fraser appeared yesterday morning with one attached to his shoe and, despite the fact that he was walking around, it refused to leave its perch.  The next one appeared this morning in The Cottage.  Unlike the Ladybird I posted about recently this was not in the least bit camera shy.  They are both New Zealand native Chorus Cicada/Kihikihi Wawā (Amphipsalta zealandica).

Jiminy Cricket

Actually it was a very noisy Cicada in a tree next next to the holiday house and adjacent to the balcony on which I was admiring the sunrise.

Too Small a Place To Share

Today I had to travel with the hood up on The Handbag (my Mazda MX5 roadster).  The car is small at the best of times but when the hood is up and I am in the driver's seat there is not much room left for even a handbag (hence its name).  I set off from Gisborne at 0900.  Some 40 ks into the journey travelling down a long straight at 100 kph I suddenly became aware of something large on my left leg by my ankle.  Being a sports car one cannot see one's feet when driving at speed without endangering one's self or others.  I involuntarily moved my leg and a cicada  suddenly flew up and over my leg onto the right hand side door.  (The car is right hand drive).  Now cicada's don't bite nor do they sting.  But with a wing span of about 5cm they are not the best things to have sitting in the car making cicada noises and flying around.  The problem was that as this incident occurred I had to slow down into a sharp bend preceeded by a sign saying that there were sharp bends and steep hills for the next 7 ks.  And I am supposed to share this fairly demanding driving experience with a cicada which by this time has gone up the leg of my shorts.  By definition there is not a lot of leg up which to disappear and I became less than a happy bunny. 

As providence would have it although there were no official passing places I came upon a pull-off which had been used for road maintenance  and managed to leave the carriageway without doing any harm to my suspension or underneath:  sports cars are not generally noted for off-road capability.  After a while I located the cicada which had crawled down the side of the driver's seat and managed to evict it from the car.

All in all not an experience to be recommended.  However in line with my tendency to play The Glad Game I gave thanks that it hadn't been a wasp.

Chorus Cicada

What an odd place to lay down and die. Or was it a case of death by jandal? Surely my shoe's not that bad. On the subject of cicadas I was driving in Town yesterday when I heard the loudest cicada ever. I suddenly realised that it was in the car with me. The roof was down as usual. But it really was LOUD. As I turned my head to look I realised it was on my shoulder. No wonder it was deafening me.