Summer is coming and this summer's contest will be about one of the most memorable, yet less appreciated symbol of the summer: "The Cicada"

A cicada (pronounced /sɪˈkeɪdə/) is an insect of the order Hemiptera, suborder Auchenorrhyncha, in the superfamily Cicadoidea, with large eyes wide apart on the head and usually transparent, well-veined wings. There are about 2,500 species of cicada around the world, and many remain unclassified. Cicadas live in temperate to tropical climates where they are among the most widely recognized of all insects, mainly due to their large size and remarkable acoustic talents. Cicadas are sometimes colloquially called "locusts", although they are unrelated to true locusts, which are a kind of grasshopper. They are also known as "jar flies". Cicadas are related to leafhoppers and spittlebugs. In parts of the southern Appalachian Mountains in the United States they are known as "dry flies" because of the dry shell they leave behind.

Cicadas are benign to humans and do not bite or sting, but can be pests to several cultivated crops. Many people around the world regularly eat cicadas: the female is prized as it is meatier. Cicadas have been (or are still) eaten in Ancient Greece, China, Malaysia, Burma, Latin America, and the Congo. Shells of cicadas are employed in the traditional medicines of China.

The name is a direct derivation of the Latin cicada, meaning "buzzer". In classical Greek it was called a tettix, and in modern Greek tzitzikas - both names being onomatopoeic.

The adult insect, sometimes called an imago, is usually 2 to 5 cm (1 to 2 in) long, although some tropical species can reach 15 cm (6 in), e.g. Pomponia imperatoria from Malaysia. Cicadas have prominent eyes set wide apart on the sides of the head, short antennae protruding between or in front of the eyes, and membranous front wings. Also, commonly overlooked, cicadas have 3 small eyes located on the top of the head between the two large eyes that match the color of the large eyes, giving them a total of five eyes. Desert cicadas are also among the few insects known to cool themselves by sweating, while many other cicadas can voluntarily raise their body temperatures as much as 22 °C (72 °F) above ambient temperature.

In France, the cicada is used to represent the folklore of Provence and Mediterranean cities (despite the fact some species live in Alsace or the Paris Basin).

A summer insect (at least in temperate countries), the cicada has represented insouciance (i.e. nonchalance or indifference) since antiquity. Jean de La Fontaine began his collection of fables Les fables de La Fontaine with the story La Cigale et la Fourmi (The Cicada and the Ant) based on one of Aesop's fables: in it the cicada spends the summer singing while the ant stores away food, and finds herself without food when the weather turns bitter. Cicada songs are regularly used in Japanese anime to indicate that a scene is taking place in the summer.

In the Japanese novel The Tale of Genji, the title character poetically likens one of his many love interests to a cicada for the way she delicately sheds her scarf the way a cicada sheds its shell when molting. They are also a frequent subject of haiku, where, depending on type, they can indicate spring, summer, or fall.

In China the phrase 'to shed off the golden cicada skin' is the poetic name of the tactic of using deception to escape danger, specifically of using decoys (leaving the old shell) to fool enemies. It became one of the 36 classic Chinese strategems. In the Chinese classic Journey to the West, the protagonist Priest of Tang was named the Golden Cicada; in this context the multiple shedding of shell of the cicada symbolizes the many stages of transformation required of a person before all illusions have been broken and one reaches enlightenment.

In 2004, "cicada" ranked 6th in Merriam-Webster's Words of the Year.

(taken from Wikipedia)

1º You must draw any kind of artwork related to Cicada or Cicada life-cycle, it must show Cicadas in a positive way, of course.

2º You can include your OCs, fanart, or any other thing you like, as long as you include a cicada-related thing. It must be an Original work, made for this contest

3º You can add as many entries as you like

4º Try to keep it "PG"

5º The deadline will be July 20 2009 (now extended to July 27)

1º by
2º by
3º by
4º by