GREENSBORO, N.C. — Cicadas are the talk of the town along with the peculiar sound they make.
While they are here—it leaves one to wonder: how do cicadas know when to wake up every 17 years?
They have a circadian rhythm of course!—well not exactly.
"One theory is that they have kind of a four year internal clock and so they keep track of four year increments as they are growing," Clyde Sorenson, North Carolina State Professor of Entomology said.
Sorenson says the insects will use the change of tree seasons as a cheat sheet for keeping track.
And about the call you hear? Well we humans may be intruding on love connections being made.
"It's species has it's own song it attracts females. butted if she finds him to be a good quality singer she has a little wing flick thing that she does that the males can hear and that's her signal that maybe she's interested," Sorenson said.
He says cicadas have only a month above ground. So watching out for predators is a must.
"Everybody is eating them in fact I imagine some of the birds and other animals are getting tired of a cicada diet by now."
While they may have predators, Sorenson says cicadas are not the reason more of their arch nemesis are being seen.
"Cicadas don't necessarily attract copperheads butted they are quite willing to eat them but cicadas don't make more copperheads."
Be sure to get all of your cicada footage now because soon the broods will be returning and you wont spot them again in our area until 2030!
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