Is it true that cicadas cannot fly at night?
Posted: Apr 05 2012 8:11 am
Summer is coming and a lot of you folks are heading north, which means that you'll come across a lot of cicadas, esp in the Williams area. I know you're not heading north just to see the cicadas, but when you do come across one, can you do me a favor and catch one and try to release it at night and then during the day? My experience is that they don't fly at night. I've caught two cicadas tried to release them at night and they would not fly away. I then tried to release them the next morning and they instantly flew away. I'm guess that they don't fly at night and need some light to navigate or they're hard-wired to not fly unless there's a light source. This may also be true with butterflies, praying mantises, and dragonflies, because I've had similar experiences with them. I've searched the internet for this answer and couldn't find one, so maybe we can find the answer that mankind has not been able to answer.