News Animals

To climb trees, cicadas look to the shadows

A shadow-sensing skill known as skototaxis helps cicadas find trees to molt on

A cicada nymph with white paint around the top of its head clings to a stick on a bed of grass

Researchers temporarily coated cicadas’ eyes and light-sensing organs with white paint, blocking the contrast between light and dark that the insects use to find trees.

Martha Weiss

By Elie Dolgin

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