The most unexpected part of looking after Flicky was the eggs. Her wings were clearly too damaged for flight, yet she continued laying eggs during those ten days. Ohhh, Flicky. What a little survivor.

Of course, this raised an entirely new set of questions. Cicadas deposit their eggs into little cuts in tree branches using an ovipositor, and those branches eventually dry out once they’re no longer attached to the tree. I was concerned that if the wood dried and warped too much, it could end up damaging or crushing the eggs inside.

Keeping the egg-bearing branches moist was going to be important, and plain water seemed a sensible place to start. That was a separate problem from finding suitable branches for Flicky to feed on.

Then there was the question of what happened if the eggs actually hatched. The tiny nymphs would need to reach soil and eventually find roots to feed from. I’d only intended to look after one injured cicada, and now I had the possibility of an entire next generation to think about.

I wasn’t about to start cutting open branches to count eggs, either. Much better to give them a chance and see what happened.

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