Last week we told you that the cicadas were coming. This week they are here. Their constant buzz will be a background noise for the next six weeks or so until their eggs hatch and the larva burrow underground for another 17 years.

Susan Coffin, a regular reader, and contributor to the Oxford Observer, sent us these cicada pictures she took just outside of King Library this week. 

“It’s amazing to watch them struggle out of their nymph exoskeletons and climb up the tree trunks,” she said. “They’re beautifully formed creatures with symmetrical translucent wings, red eyes that pop and black head markings that look like a second set of eyes.”

Gallery • 3 Photos

The cicada nymphs claw their way up out of the ground and break out of their exoskeletons, leaving the hollow remains clinging to trees, bushes and window screens. Photo by Susan Coffin

Meanwhile, other cicadas, a bit further along in their life cycles, sporting darker bodies and wings, march up the trees and fly off.

If you are taking pictures of this harmless insect invasion, send them on to us at [email protected] with your name and where the pictures were taken. We’ll run a selection each week for as long as the buzz continues. 

– David Wells, editor of the Oxford Observer