We have just left our tiny larva, of the size of a chip, at the moment when it plunged in the depths of the ground.

She digs long underground galleries, in the search of roots, to nourish itself of their sap.

The legs of front dig and cross, the legs of behind push the ground behind and the legs of the medium are used to hold balance while the two other pairs work.

When the weather is cold, she is inserted more; when the weather is hot, she goes up towards surface.

The larva grows bigger, by undergoing four moults : its skin is not elastic; each time that it grows, it tears it and in exchange. The eyes are large and blanchâtres, nebulous, nonready to see; moreover what good is sight under ground.

During its last moult, it is transformed into larva nymphoïde, the exit is close. In its ultimate carapace, all the elements of the body are ready, same the wings.

In June - four years were passed - the larva nymphoïde, muddy, leaves ground by a large hole (of the size of an inch), top of a vertical channel of approximately forty centimetres length. It cemented the walls of this well with mud formed by a mixture of ground with its urine.

The larva leaves its hole, now its eyes are less luisants, ready to see. It seeks a support (brushwood, stem, branch) on which it is fixed firmly. It is the moment when the young free Cicada its last envelope.

The thorax is split on the back and by the crack, the insect slowly emerges. The wings are ruffled, wet, oranges with veins tender green; the body is of a pale green with the hardly brown thorax, from where the expression of Provence "cigalo not madure" (cicada not ripe, therefore still green). It remains hung with its skin three to four hours, during which its wings were défroissent and dry; its body hardens, loses its green color, becomes entirely brown. During this ultimate phase, it is the prey, without defense, of the predatory ones.

Finally our Cicada flies away, leaving its défroque firmly hung during months, resistant to the bad weather.