[Cheese]

Originally Posted by fundmark19

I saw these 2 weeks ago in a field behind my house in New Brighton. There had to have been 50+ of them on this empty dirt field it was very very weird. I wonder what causes them

So, what's going on, in layman's terms? The LiveScience piece explains that the bugs in this clip are near the end of their lives and the flight is actually a mating ritual. Joe Kieper, entomologist and executive director of the Virginia Museum of Natural History, spoke with LiveScience. "This is a mating flight," Kieper said. "The males are trying to impress the females, and the females select a mate." Different pairs hook up in the vortex, which is kind of a dance for bugs looking to score. After the male and female mate, the male dies, and the female lays eggs. She too then dies.
What's amazing is the level of synchronization among the insects. Like a large flock of seagulls, the insects seem to be moving as one. According to an article from WJLA.com, "a bugnado is spawned when heavy rain or floods and optimal temperatures cause insects to hatch en masse, conjuring dense colonies of buglife that ascend into sky-darkening breeding frenzies."