@paxtongate: Meet the Empress Cicada. It spends years underground as a nymph before emerging, shedding its exoskeleton, and transforming into a winged adult. Males produce extremely loud mating calls using specialized organs called tymbals, with some cicadas reaching sound levels comparable to a chainsaw or subway train. While singing, they can reduce the sensitivity of their own hearing by mechanically folding their tympanal membranes, effectively turning down their internal “volume” by about 20 decibels. Because of that life cycle, cicadas have long been associated with rebirth, transformation, and renewal. It’s an interesting symbol for those quieter periods of growth where not much seems to be happening on the surface, until suddenly something changes. #cicada #insects #naturefacts #museumtok #oddities