 Males emerge before females and both genders are sexually receptive from emergence in July to early August, when they mate and brood.English naturalist Charles Darwin postulated that the pattern of male emergence before females evolved by natural selection to improve the chances of the male mating.The timing of the emergence of females has evolved to correspond with the similar emergence of the cicada species of the area, "Tibicen duryi" and "T. parallela", which they hunt for the provisioning of their nests.