I'm a macro insect and spider photographer focused on conservation storytelling. Basically, I photograph these beautiful animals in hopes of changing the public narrative about bugs. I want people to understand how amazing insects and spiders are and how they are vital to the health of our planet.
Which brings me to the current story... I was at my local nature preserve in Ohio playing with my new camera when I saw a keeled treehopper nymph starting to emerge as an adult. There were dozens of other nymphs and new adults on the back of the sunflower leaf I was photographing, but I managed to isolate this nymph and photograph its entire emergence into an adult.
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Keeled Treehopper Nymph
You can see the nymph's exoskeleton has split open along the backside as the new adult begins to push its way out.
Keeled Treehopper Adult Emerging
The adult treehopper begins to emerge from the exoskeleton of the nymph.
Adult Keeled Treehopper Emerges
We can now see the adult's eyes emerge. Notice the very back of the nymph - it's becoming clear as the adult's body vacates the exoskeleton.
Keeled Treehopper Adult Emerges
More of the adult treehopper emerges from the nymph's exoskeleton.
Adult Keeled Treehopper Nearly Emerged
This is my favorite image of this emergence series. The new adult reminds me of a graceful horse rearing up on its back legs. We can now see most of the insect's six legs fully emerged.
Keeled Treehopper Adult
The new adult is almost fully emerged.
Keeled Treehopper Adult
The new adult takes its first steps.
Newly Emerged Keeled Treehopper
The new adult treehopper is ghost-white but will darken to a brown color over time. The wings are folded and soft, but will quickly unfurl and harden.
The entire emergence took about 10 minutes and I was thrilled to have photographed the entire process!