Aw, man, you guys are just way too good!
Yep, cicada.
Here's a wider shot, for those who don't know these beasts so well yet.
Notice that the ocelli look very different in this last shot -- red versus glowing yellow.
That puzzled me for a while. I had to change the lighting, of course. Images in the first post used a pingpong ball diffuser that pretty much enclosed the head. I had to remove the diffuser for this third picture.
My first thought was that in both cases light was mostly coming from the sides, none along the axis of the lens. So the glowing yellow could not (I thought!) be caused by simple retroreflectivity, like a deer's eyes shining in the headlights.
But just now I ran a few experiments with the bug, a flashlight, and a dark room, and I had to change my mind. The ocelli
are strongly retroreflective, and I don't see anything else going on -- for example I can't find any other illumination angles that make the ocelli light up. So I guess the diffuser just put enough more light close to the camera axis to show off the effect. Unexpected, and interesting!
--Rik
Digital Rebel with Sigma 105mm macro at 1:1, f/22. Frame width measures 22.5 mm.