Cicada molting, also known as cicada retreat or cicada skin, is the shed exoskeleton of cicadas, which are insects in the Cicadidae family. It is commonly used as a medicine for dispersing wind and relieving heat. It has a cool nature and a sweet and salty taste, with the effects of dispersing wind and relieving heat, promoting lung function and throat moisturizing, and resolving rashes and spasms. It is often used to treat symptoms such as wind-heat common cold, cough with hoarseness, measles that do not surface, itching caused by rubella, redness and opacity of the eyes, boils and abscesses, and tetanus. In the market, there are dried shells of a related insect called "Tettix" that are falsely sold as cicada molting, so it is important to be able to differentiate between the two when using.
Genuine Cicada Molting
It is hollow and shaped like a cicada, slightly oval and curved, with a surface that is tea brown, semi-transparent, and shiny. It is about 3-4 centimeters long and 1.5-2 centimeters wide. The entire body is covered with yellow-brown fine hairs. It has a pair of antennae on the head, which are filamentous and often broken off. The compound eyes are prominent and transparent, with the tip of the forehead protruding. The mouthparts are well-developed, with a wide and short upper lip and an elongated lower lip that extends into a tube. The dorsal side of the thorax is longitudinally or crosswise split, with the split edges curling inward. There are two pairs of small wings on both sides of the back, with the front pair longer than the back pair. There are three pairs of legs on the ventral side, with the forelegs and tibiae having serrations at the tips and the elbows having two small spines, all of which are black-brown. The middle and hind legs are slender. The abdomen is blunt and round, with a total of nine segments from head to tail, and the tail is triangular and blunt. The body is light, membranous, and fragile. It has a faint odor and a mild taste when smelled or tasted.
False Tettix Shell
It looks somewhat similar to genuine cicada molting, with an oval shape and a curved body, but it is smaller than genuine cicada molting, measuring about 1.7 centimeters long and 1 centimeter wide. The surface is gray-brown, semi-transparent or opaque, and slightly shiny. It also has filamentous antennae on the head, and the back of the thorax is also split in a cross shape, but the split edges do not curl inward. These three points are different from genuine cicada molting, distinguishing it from the genuine product.
Modern pharmacological research has shown that cicada molting has anticonvulsant effects. When combined with Tianma (Rhizoma Gastrodiae), Nansheng (Rhizoma Arisaematis), Zhusha (Cinnabaris), Jiangcan (Bombyx Batryticatus), and Quanxie (Buthus martensii), it is effective in treating tetanus. Its decoction can block the transmission of the sympathetic ganglia and has a sedative effect. False Tettix Shell does not possess the above-mentioned effects of cicada molting and cannot be used as a substitute for it.
