Towards evening I took a short walk, dropped by the market and was coming back when I spotted more discarded cicada nymph shells. I plucked them off the trees, placed them in the container I've started carrying expressly for the purpose.
I then spotted one more,
but as I went to pluck it it moved. It was climbing the tree in preparation for the molt!
I'd never seen a live nymph before and I was fascinated. I hoped it would begin molting soon, but it just kept on slowly, laboriously, climbing higher and higher. At one point it missed its footing and almost fell off, and I cupped my hand under it, but it recovered and continued the climb.
I must have stood there watching for over an hour, then I noticed another nymph was climbing the tree as well. I had been so rapt on the first one I hadn't noticed it coming up from behind.
This guy was a good deal faster than the first one and soon climbed past it and out of my reach.
8 PM. It was growing dark, the second nymph was no longer even visible.
I considered going home to fetch a flashlight, but decided against it, in case the light disturbed the nymph (I looked it up later and it turned out that cicada nymphs usually come out at dusk and molt at night, for protection from predators in their most vulnerable moment). And whaddayaknow, just as I was about to leave, the nymph did fall off! I turned on the flashlight on the smartphone and looked for it, but alas, I could not find it. What a pity! I really hope the nymph was able to regroup and make another attempt, but it may have been too exhausted after that arduous first climb. Can cicadas molt on the ground? Or maybe it can make do with just a short re-climb the next time. Good luck, my valiant little friend.
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