The Cicada : an insect |
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The Cicada is an insect of the order of the homoptères, like the plant louse. It thus has a head, a thorax, an abdomen and six legs. A carapace surrounds the thorax and the abdomen. The head carries: two eyes, two antennas, the apparatus of suction. The antennas enable him to feel the odors and of touching what surrounds it. The sight is very fine. Its large eyes with facets (14 000) enable him to see on the left and on the right at the same time. It has in more three small eyes (stemmates), small telescopes in ruby, on the head; thus it also sees above its face. That it sees you coming, at once it is keep silent and even flies away. But place you in order to avoid its five apparatuses of vision, there you can make all the noise which you want: to whistle, speak, applaud, it continues, imperturbable, to sing. Is the Cicada deaf? It is what celebrates it entomologist J H. Fabre thought. Thanks to progress of electroacoustics, we know now that the cicada is not deaf, but only sensitive to the only frequencies of its congeneric; because the female appears to be attracted by the call of the male, sometimes distant several hundreds of meters. The thorax carries three pairs of legs and two pairs of wings, of fine transparent lace, equal length. The abdomen is made of articulated rings and carries the reproductive apparatus. In the female, one sees the drill which will be used to introduce eggs into the branch, at the time of the laying. In the male, the reproductive organ is under a skin which protects it. The male stridule to attract the females. When the female is at its sides, the coupling takes place in a side position, under a weak angle. The copulation will last a quizaine of minutes. Then the couple separates.
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Pair |
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Head macro |
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The tree stemmates |
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Female drill |