Emergent periodical cicada nymphs use skototaxis to navigate to trees

After 13 or 17 years underground, fifth-instar periodical cicada nymphs must come aboveground to complete the final phase of their long life cycle: molting into adulthood. A successful molt requires each nymph to climb a vertical surface, typically at dusk or after dark, but it is unclear how the cicadas locate such surfaces. Observers have long noted the seemingly directional orientation of nymphs towards trees, and have speculated on possible mechanisms, including negative phototaxis, the use of topographic cues, random walks, or detection of mysterious ‘other waves’ emanating from trees, to account for this directed movement. Taking a hint from the behavior of tropical vine seedlings that grow towards tree trunks in the forest, we demonstrate that cicada nymphs, once above ground, quickly orient themselves towards the darkest sector of their visual environment, a movement response termed skototaxis. Cicada nymphs emerging from the rhizosphere of an isolated tree all walked more-o..., , # Emergent periodical cicada nymphs use skototaxis to navigate to trees

Dataset DOI: [10.5061/dryad.fqz612k4x](10.5061/dryad.fqz612k4x)

## Description of the data and file structure

* Dataset Title: Emergent periodical cicada nymphs use skototaxis to navigate to trees

## Overview

* We quantified and formally described the movements of periodical cicadas (Magicicada septendecim and M. cassini) to evaluate the role of environmental stimuli on eliciting directed movement. This data set includes a) data gathered during the 2024 emergence of Brood XIII periodical cicadas in Northern Illinois, USA b) a null model of periodical cicada movement we parameterized using live cicada movement patterns, c) data generated by this model, and d) a script documenting statistical analyses.

## Table of contents

### Data files

* DirectedMovement.csv
* RoleOfVision.csv
* IndoorChoiceTest.csv
* SimulatedCicadaMovementTrajectories.csv
* TrajectoriesTVO.csv

### Scripts

* cicada_walks.py (Phyton script..., ,