Brand: Scenic City Oddities
Insect Type: cicada shell
Type: glass dome display
Material: Mixed Materials
Country of Origin: United States
Modified Item: No
Handmade: Yes
p58f Check it out! This is a Cicada shell showcased in a glass dome display. Nice specimen for your collection. This is approx. 1 7/8 x 1 1/4".
species-dog day cicadas
Cicada shells, also known as exuviae, are often the first sign of cicadas. When cicada nymphs emerge from the ground, they climb a tall surface, like a tree or fence post, and shed their shells. The shells are exact replicas of the nymphs, and sometimes white strands can be seen coming out of them.
Chirping bugs like katydids, cicadas and crickets are prized throughout China, collected by children and old men who keep them in clay vessels or bamboo cages and nourish them with grains of rice and razor-thin slices of green onion. The practice of collecting singing insects is said to have begun 2,000 years ago. They were sought as good-luck talismans, and later as companions for imperial concubines, who kept them in gilded cages.
The insects are embedded in Chinese culture. Ancient poems praise their melodious songs, and many idiomatic expressions use crickets and grasshoppers as metaphors for fertility, friendship or the passage of time. (NYT-Andrew Jacobs)
