I am intrigued by most things nature has to offer. I love animals and wildlife and being outside. L won't go near most things creepy-crawly, and I am forced to dispose of spiders, moths and any other insects in or near our house. Not killing them whenever possible, just getting them out. When I was a kid, my siblings and cousins and I would find cicata bug shells around our grandparent's house. We would collect them up and think it was very cool. That was the only place I had ever seen these molted shells. Until last year, when I found several around the maple tree in our front yard. Revisiting my childhood, I took them all and put them in a plastic bowl. L thought this was throughly disgusting. It is amazing to me though; like a snail or hermit crab, when the cicata has grown too big for its shell, it molts it off. Unlike a snail, and more similar to a snake, the cicata doesn't find a new shell, it merely grows a new one. Unlike a snake, the molted shell that is left behind looks just like the bug that has left it. How does it get out of there without tearing it apart? I can hardly take off my shirt without stretching out the arms and neck. But that little bug manages to get all of its legs, claws, antenni out of there with one small slit. Nature is amazing.
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