This past Monday, July 25, I heard the sound of cicadas for the first time this year.
Usually the cicadas sing at the end of the rainy season, so it is not too late for them to sing, but this year the rainy season ended in June, so it seems very late.
Yesterday morning, there was one cicada at my window, but it was a quiet cicada and did not chirp at all. I checked and found that only male cicadas sing, so it might have been a female.
The life of a cicada is said to be short, but the eggs laid in trees survive the winter. They hatch around June of the following year, become larvae, and spend three to four years on the ground, burrowing into the soil. When they mature, they emerge from the ground and hatch to become adults. The adult female cicadas have only one week to find a male to mate with and lay eggs.
The life span of most insects is short, usually a few months to a year, so the life span of the cicada is relatively long. Even so, the time after becoming an adult is short. This makes them somewhat pathetic.
By the time I left the house, the cicadas outside the window were gone.
I know their time on earth will be short, but I hope they fly around as much as they can and find a good male.
