A Straggler

Yesterday afternoon I spent a very frustrating forty or so minutes trying to help a late-arriving cicada nymph (I know, I already said in *this previous post that it would be the last cicada post of the year, but this one stood out).  I hadn't heard any cicadas for some time already, and certainly wasn't expecting to encounter a nymph preparing to molt at this late date, but there it was, crawling across the sidewalk.  As with the previous nymphs I'd come across while out walking, it was going away from the tree it had presumably crawled out of;  I thought I'd do a kind deed and picked it up and put it up on the tree.

Problem was, the nymph was apparently not in the best of health;  it was having problems grabbing the tree bark and kept tumbling off.

I started to keep my hand below it to catch it;  while very small animals are not greatly bothered by falling from heights, still falling off a tree a bunch of times surely doesn't help!  I confess I added insult to (possible)injury by dropping it a few times when I picked it up (I didn't grip it tightly for fear of injuring it, and its skin was quite smooth and slippery).

I tried placing the nymph in a crotch of the tree, thinking it would stop the falls in place of my hand.

But the nymph still kept tumbling.  Then I got the bright idea to place it at the base of the tree just above the roots -- it would have more climbing to do, but at least it wouldn't have far to fall if it fell again...

which it promptly did. 

And when I put it back on, the nymph started climbing down instead of up!

Finally I decided I'd done enough, that if the nymph didn't make it, it wasn't for lack of (my)trying.  I placed it at the base of the tree for the last time and walked away.