The Lornie Trail is a popular jogging track in the weekends. While exploring this trail, we found a little Cicada that was about to molt. We hovered around the area, and true enough, the little one emerged with a new vibrant looking skin!

#1 Initially, it looked like some odd, dark coloured bug

#2 On closer look, it looked like a cicada ready to emerge! It was twitching occasionally, and looked like it was going to crack open anytime now

#3 Clumsy us got too excited and knocked onto the branch… the poor fella dropped to the ground!! Luckily, the molting process continued and we saw it emerging from its shell!

#4 Giving itself the final push to squeeze out of its molt

#5 Looks like a fish indeed… hmmm..

#6 The wings were still shriveled, and we were worried that they could not form completely while on the ground

#7 We managed to bring it back to a tree trunk to cling on, and watched the wings unravel slowly, a sight to behold!

#8 Wings almost fully extended

#9 Wings in full bloom, and it changes colour slowly. I suspect that it would turn green just like the other common cicadas in Singapore

#10 Last view of the cicada before we said bye bye to it

#11 Found this wasp sleeping on a thin branch

#12 Shot this from a lower angle, so that I could get the sky into the background to produce a smooth blue gradient

#13 It decided to wake up and fly away eventually

#14 A tiny Eucharitid wasp, all over the trail

#15 Head shot of the cute fella

#16 Walked by the reservoir and took some shots of the pond skaters

#17 They look… blue!! Very nice patterns on the body.

#18 An orange coloured cranefly

#19 Beautiful Four-lined tree frog (Polypedates leucomystax).

#20 Quite large, but camouflaged nicely on the brown leaf

#21 Really sleepy frog, didn’t budge when I went closer

#22 Well camouflaged bug on a tree trunk. Has a duck-bill, possibly a Fulgorid planthopper?

#23 Side view of the otherwise almost unnoticeable fella

The complete album can be viewed here.

James blogged about this trip here.

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