Our final Issue for 2017 is published today, Sunday, December 17th. In our Pictures page run images and snippets from some of the stories we've run this year, many of these stories contributions from community members.
We'd like to thank the many for raising your voices and speaking up and out during a year when so much of the local voice has seemed to be a quiet undertone prevailing despite a deafening array of announcements in an exercise that has felt at times like we are being spoken to, not with.
Your wonderful celebrations of all that is good and great here, those lovely smiles that cheer just by sighting them, those strident objections that continue a conversation around issues, conducted with dignity, patience, politeness and respect for others, are what a great community is all about.
How could we be otherwise?; we are blessed with living in the most beautiful place in the world - when we need to exhale we may wander through bush tracks, go sailing on a wondrous estuary or just dive into the ocean from our nearest beach. We dwell in a place of Visions - how could we not have Vision and not stick to an All Are Welcome - All Belong ethos?
We hope your Christmas-Hannukka-New Years-LIFE celebrations and end of year reflections include a good amount of focusing on what brings us all together during the break. Let's continue to be kind to each other - it's what makes us great.
Pittwater Online News's first Issue in 2018 will run Sunday January 14th.
Palm Beach rock Pool - Barrenjoey blue reflection - photo by Adriaan van der Wallen, 2017 (Artist of the Month: August 2017)
Pittwater Cicadas Shedding Their Skin
Some of you may have seen these cicada shells appearing on trees and tree leaves in recent days. This is part of the life cycle of a cicada, who will soon be singing very loudly all around us again this Summer.
When the eggs hatch, the newly hatched nymphs drop to the ground and burrow. Cicadas live underground as nymphs for most of their lives at depths down to about 2.5 metres (8 ft). Nymphs have strong front legs for digging and excavating chambers in close proximity to roots where they feed on xylem sap. In the process, their bodies and interior of the burrow become coated in anal fluids. In wet habitats, larger species construct mud towers above ground in order to aerate their burrows. In the final nymphal instar, they construct an exit tunnel to the surface and emerge. They then moult (shed their skins) on a nearby plant for the last time, and emerge as adults. The exuviae or abandoned exoskeletons remain, still clinging to the bark of the tree.
Most cicadas go through a life cycle that lasts from two to five years. Some species have much longer life cycles, such as the North American genus, Magicicada, which has a number of distinct "broods" that go through either a 17-year or, in some parts of the world, a 13-year life cycle. The long life cycles may have developed as a response to predators, such as the cicada killer wasp and praying mantis. A specialist predator with a shorter life cycle of at least two years could not reliably prey upon the cicadas.
Want to find out more about our local cicadas? Visit our 2013 page: Yellow Monday Cicadas – The Australian Insect Canary
Photos by Selena Griffith and A J Guesdon, December 2017 - at Elanora Heights and Careel Bay, Pittwater.
Pittwater Online News is Published Every Sunday Morning: 8 a.m.
