Trafika Europe 9/10 - UK in Europe

T H E T R A N S F O R M A T I O N O F T H E A R T H R O P O D S (LONDON NATURAL HISTORY MUDSEUM) 1. THE INNER LAYERS OF THE ARTHROPOD’S OLD SKELETON ARE GRADUALLY ABSORBED WHILE A NEW SKELETAL STRUCTURE IS TAKING FORM UNDERNEATH. 2. THE OLD SKELETON TEARS AND OPENS REVEALING THE NEW SKELETON. 3. AFTER IT CRAWLS OUTSIDE ITS OLD SKELETON, THE ARTHROPOD INHALES/SUCKS IN A LARGE QUANTITY OF AIR OR WATER WHICH FORCES THE NEW SKELETON TO STRETCH BEFORE IT DRIES OUT AND HARDENS. 4. THE AIR OR WATER ARE EXPELLED LEAVING SPACE FOR THE ARTHROPOD TO GROW.

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The shedding progressed quickly. Now, the head is free. The pro- boscis, the front legs are gradually emerging from their casings. The body is in a horizontal position, legs upwards. The wings are predisposed to puff out. Still creased, they look like the curved indents of an arc. Ten minutes are sufficient for this first phase of the transformation. The second remains, whose duration is longer. The insect is completely free, apart from the top of the abdomen, always bound in its casing... With the old dress is held by the top pf the abdomen... the Cicada turns along the vertical axis, head down. It is a pale, green shade of yellow. The wings straighten out, unfold, disengage from the flow of liquid that sur- rounds them. This slow and delicate operation over, the Cica- da with an almost imperceptible movement sets itself straight again with a motion of the kidneys and assumes its normal posi- tion, with the head up. The front legs are hanging from the emp- ty carcass and, finally, the end part of the abdomen detaches from its casing. The denuding has been completed. A bath in the air and the warmth are necessary to strengthen and colour the fragile creature. Hanging from its carcass by its nails, the Cicada sways in the slightest breeze, still weak, still green. Eventually, a blackening becomes visible and is soon complete. THE C I CADA : THE TRANSFORMAT ION_ LA CIGALE: LA TRANS- FORMATION JEAN- HENRI FABRE. SOUVENIRS ENTOMOLOGIQUES. V.XIV

Schinousa 14.07.12

BIRTHDAY Do the wings itch as they sprout? when from the opening in the abdomen you first put out your head and pushing painfully you ejected yourself into the light to let out your call were your eyes open? did you hear the words of those who held you helping

the entire body in rotation gathered with bent legs the day warm? A woman was giving birth on the floor of her car. Does all growth hurt, one wonders,

like the very first? Does one not grow at the same rate imperceptibly? Or after periods of stasis does motion suddenly claim you and you proliferate and unbearably change? Do you throw off yourself the petals like a flower sucking in the dew of something old and then repeat? Inhabited by the terrors of the night do you open your morning eyes upside down on the world? Have you garnered the stars holding them in your hands scattering them on the dirt, the sand you now have grown you tree are able to shelter us in your sparse shade as we grow lighter now, ever lighter. RITES DE PASSAGE how to pass from one season - to the next One hour to the other it is slow and tortuous and lasts hence the rites of passage all the pain at once all the fear tearing between before and after. You were crying; your children’s clothes that are a tight fit you were forced to part with so that you might afterwards in your newborn body fall in love