Why do crickets chirp at night?

A person loves to listen to the sounds of nature: the rustling of the wind in the grass or leaves, the murmur of a stream, the singing of birds, etc. All such sounds can have a beneficial effect on the mental state, calm after stress, and bring peace and tranquility.

Natural sounds that people enjoy include the sound of crickets. Or rather, this is not exactly singing - insects do not have a vocal apparatus, they can make sounds with other parts of the body. This method is called stridulation. In order to make sound, crickets and grasshoppers use special membranes located on the elytra.

Why do crickets die?

Crickets should receive moisture from wet food: grated or chopped carrots, lettuce; in the warm season, dandelion or nettle leaves are ideal food. Feeding cabbage, potatoes, and beets is excluded - this leads to the death of insects.

Interesting materials:

Is it possible to freeze apple jam? Is it possible to freeze Meringue roll? Can you freeze cooked pizza? Is it possible to freeze fried mushrooms? Is it possible to freeze Honey cake with sour cream? Is it possible to freeze boiled fern? Is it possible to freeze saffron milk caps for the winter? Is it possible to freeze dry-cured meat? Is it possible to freeze white dough? Is it possible to freeze cottage cheese?

Grasshopper

These are the most common “chirpers”. Grasshoppers live almost throughout the entire territory of Russia, except for the highlands and regions of the Far North. Most species are hunters, patiently waiting for prey to appear. In this respect, the grasshopper is similar to a praying mantis - it also lies in wait for its prey, and then grabs it with its strong front legs and powerful jaws. Sometimes a grasshopper moves with quiet steps, feeling the road in front of it with its antennae - as soon as it touches another insect, the hunter catches it with a quick swoop. When choosing an object for a snack, he does not disdain anyone, even his relatives. Most often, aphids, hairless caterpillars, young beetles and fillies are found in its jaws. If there is not enough animal food, the grasshopper can also switch to vegetation, eating the buds and leaves of shrubs and various cereals. Only a few species are completely herbivorous, such as the greenhouse grasshopper, which damages flowers in greenhouses.

So it turns out that the children’s song is not telling the truth: the grasshopper will “touch” the grasshopper and the booger, and is not particularly friendly with flies. And, by the way, it can easily bite the skin on the fingers of a person who carelessly grabs it. Moreover, he will vomit a drop of his own blood into the wound, which will burn like fire. Handle him with care!

Why do grasshoppers and crickets chirp? More details

Built-in violin

The grasshopper performs incredibly beautiful melodies using its front wings. The grasshopper moves the jagged vein on the left wing, like a bow, along the “grater” on the right wing, and from it the vibrations are transmitted to a special vibrating membrane, the “mirror.”

The performer’s “track list” includes long, piercing invocation songs, short trills of warning to rivals, and a quiet, creaky ballad addressed to the lady of his heart. The male not only plays it - sometimes he also dances, swaying from side to side while performing.

The hearing organs of grasshoppers are located... on the shins of the front legs. The inside of the “ears” are very complex, but on the outside they look like membranes or narrow slits.

Why is he doing this?

Of course, nature tried for a reason. The complex structure of the elytra is given to crickets in order to simplify one of the most important purposes of the existence of individuals - leaving behind offspring. Therefore, males sing only during the mating season.

Why do crickets chirp? Musical abilities are given to them for communication with each other and for solving three problems at once:

The most important purpose of singing is to invite females to take part in procreation. The mating song of a cricket is the most ear-pleasing “work” in the insect’s repertoire. It sounds unobtrusive, but at the same time very melodic. The male either makes ringing sounds or begins to crackle or buzz. It is not limited to singing alone: the trill is accompanied by a mating dance, in which even the mustache is involved. Several females may live on the territory of a male or in the neighborhood, and with his melodies he tries to keep them around him.
Female crickets are not always loyal. If a new male who has settled nearby begins to emit a special and loud singing, then she may change her gentleman.
Marking the boundaries of your site. Crickets are characterized by solitary living, and each male has his own territory, in which he can allow several females to live. To make it clear to strangers that the area is occupied by it, the cricket emits shrill signals warning possible rivals.
If a skirmish could not be avoided, then the male tries to influence the enemy with sharp but loud sounds. Crickets are very aggressive. If two individuals get into a fight, then there is a high probability of the death of one of them. In this case, the winner can eat the loser. In the best case, the fight ends with the loss of antennae, legs or wings. In such a fight, the chirping is a kind of battle cry, designed to suppress the opponent and frighten him.

Only sexually mature individuals are capable of making sounds. Young males learn to do this by imitating their adult neighbors.

Where can you listen to cricket?

To get acquainted with the singing of crickets, just go out of town in the summer. These common insects are found almost everywhere. Their mating season begins with the onset of warm weather, and at this time ringing trills and threatening chirping are heard in the air. Crickets sing almost all day long. True, it is very difficult to get closer to the insect: it is very shy, and when a person approaches, it hides in its hole, from which it does not move far.

If it is not possible to meet a cricket in the wild, then there are many audio and video recordings of their sound on the Internet. They are pleasant to listen to, have a calming effect and promote relaxation.

What do they eat?

At any stage of life, these insects feed on plant sap. With the help of a proboscis, insects make punctures in stems or roots. It does not harm vegetation. However, farmers are afraid of cicadas because they destroy many crops.

During the egg-laying period, females burrow into the peel or skin of the plant, resulting in destruction of its integrity. For this reason, females cause great harm to agriculture. The vineyards are suffering the most. They also destroy a large number of root crops, grains and berries.

Due to the peculiarity of their life cycle, sometimes their population will increase several tens of times.

How to get rid of night singers

If the romance of crickets' trills does not seduce the owners, then the only way left is to expel them from the house forever, choosing the method that suits you.

We act without the use of chemicals

Try going without chemicals first:

If you don’t want to kill the “singer” for superstitious reasons, catch him and release him into nature. True, this is problematic to do, since crickets appear only in the dark; in the light they quickly jump and hide in cracks.
Try placing sticky traps in areas where you hear the chirping more often.
Pour a couple of tablespoons of molasses or molasses into a bowl and leave in a warm, humid place. Insects will like this. Please try again in 2 days.
A proven folk remedy is the smoke from burning sealing wax, which drives out pests at least until next year, the breeding season.
A cricket has appeared in the house, which means there is a cat missing. The fluffy pet will quickly catch the annoying “singers”.
Natural enemies of crickets are lizards and starlings. It is not difficult to make a birdhouse on the territory of a private house, or you can try to house a lizard.
To kill cricket eggs, use a vacuum cleaner with a HEPA filter or ultraviolet treatment. Just don’t forget to knock out the dust collector outside so as not to make the situation worse.

Photo gallery: simple ways to get rid of crickets

Regular cleaning with an effective vacuum cleaner can destroy cricket eggs The glue trap is easy to use Cats, lizards, starlings are helpers in the fight not only against crickets Crickets jump straight into a bowl when they find a treat made from molasses or molasses

How to get rid of crickets in an apartment using chemical insecticides

If a whole population of crickets has already appeared in a house or apartment, you cannot do without chemicals

. Use potent poisons made on the basis of dichlorvos - “Neo”, “Varan” and others.

Before starting work, close the doors and windows tightly, shake the can and spray the substance at a distance of 30 cm from the surface. Treat places where insects were most often seen, as well as all corners, window frames, and baseboards. Ventilate the room well for half an hour, and after that it is advisable to leave the house for a day or more.

When working, use safety glasses and a respirator, take children and pets out of the room.

After 40-70 days, repeat the treatment as young crickets hatch during this period.

Signals

Our hero has the amazing ability to produce three types. But only males can make melodic sounds. Let's take a closer look at each of them:

The first type of sound that an insect makes is an indication that mating season is open and it is in search of a female.
The second type of serenades is dedicated entirely to the female who responded to his call.
The last type of melody tells potential rivals that this territory is occupied and everything that is on it belongs to the owner of the frightening sound produced.

Many people are interested in what exactly a cricket does to produce a melodic sound. Let us describe these actions to you in detail.

In order to make a sound, the male insect uses the following actions, rubbing the funicular (conatic) at the end of one elytra against the teeth of the surface of the other. Based on these movements, the trembling bases of the wings lift upward, then a sharp movement with vibration occurs. It is this that causes the insect to emit serenades.

An adult insect lives a decent amount of time when compared with other insects. On average, the duration of its life period ranges from three to four months.

Links

Alexander Benediktov. Vibration alarm for insects of the family Tetrigidae (Orthoptera, Tetrigoidea) in Russia and adjacent territories.
Signals of Russian beetles
Orthoptera alarm
The British Library Sound Archive is an archive of over 150,000 recordings of animal and natural sounds.

Do you know? That crickets, like many living organisms, are able to perceive environmental sounds.

But, unlike the hearing organs familiar to us that mammals have - these are ears, the cricket does not have them. How do these insects pick up sound vibrations? These chirping inhabitants have tympanic organs. They are the hearing organs of crickets. Their location is very different from what we are used to. They are not located on the head at all, but on the front legs and the end of the abdomen and resemble the eardrum in our ear. It is capable of transmitting vibration of air or water, but, unlike the drum, it helps to perceive not only sound vibrations, but also all vibrations occurring in the environment. A person has a limited perception of the sounds made by insects, but each of us has heard the chirping of a cricket. He cannot make vocal sounds, but he can rub some parts of his body against others, the cricket's elytra participate in this process, and the well-known chirping vibrations are formed. This process is scientifically called stridulation. Crickets often use this mechanism within their species, for example, males invite females on a date this way. And this was proven by an interesting experiment, when the male began to chirp into the microphone of the phone, the female, hearing him, at the other end of the line, hurried to the phone. She heard him.

COMBINE USEFUL WITH PLEASANT!

Purpose Demonstrate how crickets make sounds. Materials

Clear adhesive tape
Cardboard card
Nail file or sandpaper

Progress

Use clear tape to secure one of the long sides of the card to the table.
Holding the other long side of the card by the corner, lift it about 5 cm above the table.
Slowly move the nail file back and forth along the raised edge of the card. Listen to the sound.
Repeat step “3” but move the nail file quickly.

Results Sound is produced. The faster you move the nail file, the higher the pitch of the sound. Why? The sound is produced when an uneven surface rubs against a sharp edge of something. In a male cricket, the uneven surface of one wing rubs against the sharp edge of the other wing. As with a nail file, the faster the wings move, the higher the frequency of the sound produced.

MORE FUN FACTS ABOUT CRICKETS!

It turns out that ambient temperature affects the speed at which these creaking creatures chirp. The hotter it is outside, the more intensely they will chirp. They are like thermometers that help determine the weather. This feature was noticed by physicists back in the 19th century. They tried to identify the relationship between the number of chirping sounds and the ambient temperature. Formulas were developed that helped calculate the relationship between these indicators.

You can try this too. To do this, you can visit a forest or park where you can clearly hear the chirping of crickets.

Try to count their chirps within 25 seconds. Happened?

Now divide the resulting number by 3, and then add another 4. You should get the air temperature at a given time. Try to compare with official information.

But it is worth remembering that such a temperature determination is only possible at ambient temperatures exceeding 13 °C. If it's cooler outside, the crickets simply won't sing. This temperature is uncomfortable for them, so they hide.

***

>Download – Crickets at nightSounds of nature

White-sided magpie: a miracle of nature

This is an amazing, God-created miracle of nature - a magpie! Its English name, magpie, can be translated as an alluring pie, as if attracting a magnet to itself. But really, look how plump and rich she is.

The white-sided magpie is the hero of many fairy tales and epics.

They draw her, she is a permanent image of our publications.

By the way, what do we know about the magpie, and, moreover, what does it have to do with hunting?

And the most immediate thing, but more on that a little later.

So, forty. She is a member of the corvid family, the most intelligent group of birds, most of which are in close contact with humans.

The morphological feature of all magpies is a long tail disproportionate to the body and a wide, rounded wing.

The lively, restless bird is constantly on the move. Forgive the comparison, her character can be called “bazaar”, scandalous and quarrelsome. Even when left alone, the magpie constantly grumbles.

But the uniqueness lies elsewhere. The bird's voice is understandable to everyone: from insects to humans. Hearing him, many fall silent, in particular the grasshoppers. Frogs also refrain from croaking in the spring. Birds of prey, as well as a wolf or a fox, always rush to the place where the magpie chirps incessantly.

Our hunter brother also knows this and will also check the “interesting place”, where, as a rule, something unusual will always be found. And one more thing: the magpie is very sensitive to the “state of the object.”

If, for example, a hare almost always gets it due to its weakness, then it may not react to an elk or a wild boar, if they are, of course, healthy. Well, if they are sick or injured, they won’t let go.

All magpies are excellent housekeepers. Although married couples are formed for one season, they think through their life from beginning to end, where reliability and safety are the basis. The nest is a solid structure.

The foundation is a clay bowl with thin branches woven into it. All this is surrounded by a huge number of cunningly laid branches, which can be impossible to pull out. A roof is being made over the head, and there is a small entrance to the side.

As a rule, the magpie is a bushy species and its “home” is not high, but there are cases when pairs climb to a height of 10 or even 15 meters. We talked about safety. So, many families make one or two, or even three so-called false nests nearby, and all these are good-quality structures.

But talkativeness immediately reveals the main “hacienda”. The clutch can contain up to eleven greenish eggs with beautiful brown specks, but no more than six chicks hatch - and this is the limit.

At this time, in the vicinity of the nest, all living things that the magpie feeds on are destroyed; it does not fly far. Magpies grow quickly, just as quickly master the cunning and cunning of their parents and soon begin to live independently.

There are few species of magpies in the world. Chinese ciss cats appear before us with their luxurious long striped tails. The wandering magpie, or, as it is now more often called, the Indian magpie, lives in India.

Here comes the riddle! Blue Magpie. It is found only in Spain, Portugal, etc. here in the Far East. One of the main hypotheses of this phenomenon is as follows. Once upon a time, a huge glacier floated onto the mainland, leaving corners of life only in the West and East. Over time, the ice melted, new life formed, but the magpie remained, only now it was separated by thousands of kilometers.

But let's return to our beauty. In Western Europe, the magpie occupies mid-latitudes, increasing slightly in numbers to the north. Here in Russia it is numerous up to the Ural Range. Further across Siberia it is practically absent, and then miraculously it is found in Chukotka and Kamchatka (this is another possible confirmation of the glacial theory), as well as in North America and Canada. Vertically, it “flew” from Norway to North-West Africa.

But for some reason there were not as many crows in hunting grounds as expected. Half were quickly killed, the other half just as quickly “got wiser” and were now flying around the hunters a mile away. But the incentive remained. "Business is business!" We had to find a way out.

And, of course, he was found. Rook! Oh, how many trusting and good-natured messengers of spring fell under this cause! After all, at the “reception points” there were people who knew that “a raven is the husband of a crow,” and they knew how to distinguish their paws. But the rook did not last forever. Unfortunately, he flew away for the winter.

No, no, don’t think that the “end of the world” has come. The crows remained. And where? Well, of course, in the city and in city landfills. And then the windows of the high-rise buildings opened wide, and a pneumatic barrage fell on the crows. Apartments near garbage dumps have become “elite”.

From the waste disposal sites, where there were clouds of crows, cannonade could be heard, comparable only to the capture of Berlin. After all, it is known for certain that, as an urbanized species, the raven is a useful representative of the fauna. It’s hard to imagine what kind of filth the city’s residents would be in if it weren’t for the cleaners, the crows.

But let's return to the magpie. Having taken refuge behind the back of her gray friend, the magpie began vigorous, vigorous activity. Moreover, its scale, given the cunning and deceit, is much wider. If only birds of open landscapes - waders, ducks - suffer from crows, then the magpie has reached upland game and even the “patriarch” of our forests - the wood grouse.

And what's the worst thing? The crow, having pulled off 2-3 eggs and having eaten their fill, flies away. Longtail will not rest. She will fly to the nest over and over again until she drags all the eggs into her warehouse. And her memory is “leaky”!

If the crow still remembers something and on “dark days” visits its hidden places, then the windy white-sided crow quickly forgets about them. All this is compensated by a new surge of activity, from which the entire environment suffers.

And here is the scientific data. In the Astrakhan delta, the magpie destroys up to ten percent of all clutches of commercial bird species, second in this indicator to only one percent of crows and the small population of rooks that join them. The chicks get no less. Small species are practically defenseless. It is advisable for large ones to “grow up” as quickly as possible, and then the white-sided fish will no longer “get” them.

So, we come to the eternal question: “to be or not to be,” or rather, “what to do”? Here's a little more biology.

There are two populations of birds. Some hang around houses, others are forest dwellers, but more often semi-forest dwellers. The first ones are a headache only for housewives: they will drag chickens, ducklings and, if the attempt was successful, drag everyone away. Forest magpies are already a problem for rangers.

Each of them knows that this is a completely undesirable object in their household and a threat to the surrounding living world. What should a hunter do? The answer is clear. If you meet a magpie near houses, of course, do not shoot it. These are our little brothers. They are defenseless against the “higher mind”.

After all, it is their beauty that inspires us to do the best, gives us enormous emotional potential, and gives us a meeting that we can then tell our family, friends and acquaintances about for a long time.

The situation in the forest is different. If a magpie appears there, it’s a disaster. But be sure to consult with the huntsman and inform him about the find. If this opportunity does not arise, you need to get rid of the magpie and destroy the nest.

And one last thing. This already applies to people who like to keep birds in captivity. Magpie houses are simply charming, but also... Taken by a chick, a magpie quickly gets used to you. (We are not talking, of course, about keeping it in a cage. The bird will quickly “break” its feathers, lose color, become ruffled and, most likely, die). She will relentlessly follow you. Favorite place is your shoulder.

On it she will spin around, touching you with her long tail, rummaging through your hair, constantly chatting and purring something, and gently touching your ear. If there is a call in the apartment, including a telephone, there will be noise.

The magpie must definitely find out and check who came, and will not calm down until the visitor leaves you. And then he can “experience” the event for a very long time. She knows the inhabitants of the house well, makes friends with them, especially children, and even lets them pet her, although she really doesn’t like it.

The long-tail does not get along with almost any domestic animals. The reaction to cats is clear: it’s like a radio turned on at full volume twenty-four hours a day. A dog is another matter.

Breeds like Jagdterriers sense the magpie, are afraid, and there will be no less noise than in the case of a cat. Spaniels, huskies, shepherds, pinschers - she has equal relationships with them, and, surprisingly, the dogs even become attached to such an unusual acquaintance.

The situation is worse with cops. Good-natured, “soft-hearted.” The magpie immediately feels the “weakness” and quickly becomes the mistress of the situation, begins to peck, pinch the dogs, and chase them away from bowls of food. The latter become nervous, irritable and begin to work poorly.

If you keep songbirds, hamsters, and guinea pigs, then after a couple of months you can “breathe freely”: you will no longer have to clean the cages and clean up after them, there will simply be no one to do it. And finally, here we are.

If you and your household lived a free life, you could relax (meaning leave things anywhere), then now everything will be different. The magpie will quickly “put things in order”: it will drag around carelessly left behind gold rings, chains, brooches, watches - in short, everything that glitters, and you are unlikely to be able to find what is missing, especially if the window is open and the magpie flies there for a walk.

Well, it’s closed - get ready to turn over the house every time in search of the loot. There is only one case where you won’t need to do this—if food is hidden. A “specific” smell will quickly lead you to the trail of the hiding place.

If you forgot something open, worst of all meat, fish, eggs, the white-sided fish will immediately take everything to the storerooms. And in this case, after some time, detection success is guaranteed.

Another working day has ended. You came home a little tired, maybe irritated by something. If you rang the bell or opened the door yourself, the first person to greet you with a chirping sound will be a magpie. She's been waiting for you all day! She's glad to see you!

Her touch and communication will quickly, like a hand, relieve your stress and fatigue, and a slight anxiety will be added to the good mood that appears: has everything been removed or is something missing? Something like magpie is very cheerful today!

Source

Causes of chirping

The main reason why you can hear crickets chirping is due to their breeding habits. In this way, a sexually mature male tries to attract a female. Its rubbing can continue from dawn to dusk until the cry is heard. The success of the process will largely depend on the strength of the male’s sound; the more energetic, melodic and sonorous he is, the greater the chance of attracting a female.

You can hear a cricket sing not only if it wants to reproduce. Insects lead an isolated lifestyle and occupy several square centimeters. The site is carefully guarded by its owner and does not allow guests except the female. He walks around his property several times a day and checks the integrity of the territory.

A person enjoys listening to crickets, regardless of the reason for these sounds. Their trill is as melodious as the singing of birds, so some even prefer to breed Orthoptera representatives at home. This is not difficult to do, and optimism is fueled by the fact that in captivity singers can chirp not only at night, but also during the day.

A chirping grasshopper can often even be seen in the grass. Only he moves his legs and wings so quickly that it is impossible to understand what exactly is happening. However, scientists have discovered this too. The chirping process, as it turns out, occurs in most grasshoppers during the closing of the elytra. At the same time, they move in approximately the same way as the leaves of scissors.

By the way, female Orthoptera catch the singing of their gentlemen with a special apparatus located on their paws. In some species the “ear” is located in the sternum area.

In the summer outside the city you can hear a pleasant chirping sound - the characteristic sound of a cricket. This insect, which lives all over the world, “sings” not for fun. Its chirping trills serve to communicate with its relatives. To reproduce its incessant song, the cricket uses wings that have a special structure.

A harbinger of grief and troubles

Not only is positive symbolism attributed to the cricket, it is sometimes seen as the source of various misfortunes:

Grief in the family. If an insect chirped in the house for some time and then left it without your participation, this means that difficult times are coming. The family will face serious trials. This may concern both a shaky financial situation and discord in relations between household members.
Fire. A cricket flying around the house promises a fire. You should be careful with fire, it is better to listen to the omen and be considered superstitious than to ignore such a serious warning and remain, at best, without a roof over your head, or at worst, lose someone close to you.
Disease. If the chirping of a cricket wakes up one of the family members, then health problems await him. It is better to undergo an examination in advance and make sure that everything is in order, or take action in time if any abnormalities are discovered.
Poverty and death. This is the sentence for anyone who decides to kill a cricket. The cricket itself is the guardian of the house, so killing it cannot go unpunished.

A cricket in the house, as the sign says, or rather, most of the well-known signs, is still good. An insect acquires a negative meaning only under certain circumstances. Our ancestors believed that the cricket protected the house and the family living in it. It’s up to you to decide whether to believe in these omens, because often it is human faith that provokes certain events in our lives.

The cricket is a seemingly harmless insect and is famous for its expressive chirping at night. This ability made him a positive hero of folklore. But few people enjoy a daily concert. All that remains is to get rid of the troublemaker in the house by choosing a method that is convenient for you.

Where does sound come from?

Any chirping by grasshoppers is not just for fun, but for a specific purpose. Most often, males attract females in this way. But scientists were able to find out that the different structure of the elytra is determined not only by the type of insect, but also by some features of its life and behavior. So, for example, those species of Orthoptera that chirp in tall grass, which can be an obstacle to the propagation of a sound signal, have a wider range of sound frequencies.

The answer to the question of how a cricket makes sounds lies in its structure. Grasshoppers chirp according to the same principle, but the apparatus for producing sounds is more advanced among representatives of the cricket family. The sound of the acoustic apparatus of crickets is more diverse and polygamous than that of grasshoppers.

The sound quality and volume are directly affected by the ambient temperature. Insects are classified as heat-loving, and if the thermometer drops below 21 degrees, they hibernate.

The acoustic apparatus that makes a cricket chirp is found only in representatives of the strong half of insects. It is not for nothing that the chirping of a cricket resembles the sound of a violin, since it has a special vein under its wings. It is its beating against the fender liners that helps produce melodic sounds. From the point of view of the correct sound, there is no difference in whether crickets are crickets or chirps. Therefore, both words are equally applicable to representatives of the order Orthoptera.

Nutrition

In summer, they feed on plant foods such as grass, shoots, roots, etc. In winter, they find refuge in people's homes or industrial premises, where there is a lot of food and water.

An interesting fact was noticed that insects of this species can eat the clutches of young relatives, which proves that they are cannibals. They can also feed on dead insects that are somehow found in the aisles of their home.

A female cricket can lay a colossal number of eggs, but this is directly related to the climatic conditions and the environment in which the insects are located.

In the best conditions, it lays from 40 to 700 eggs in cracks formed in the soil, provided that the air temperature in the shade is at least 28 degrees Celsius. The incubation period lasts from 1 to 12 weeks, then the pupae begin to appear.

The full development period from clutch to adult imago can take from 34 to 65 days. The pupa goes through more than eleven stages of development.

Cicada

If the song comes from above, then most likely it is performed by a cicada, one of the worst enemies of plants. Adult insects suck juices from the leaves of grasses, shrubs and trees. The larvae hide in the ground and damage the roots.

Southern cicadas are large (body length - 2–6.5 cm, wingspan - up to 18 cm), and in Central Russia and to the north there live small cicadas - no more than 1 cm in height.

Photo: www.globallookpress.com

The cicada's body is wide and short, with two pairs of transparent wings on the sides. The head is wide, with large bulging eyes. The legs are strong, but cicadas cannot jump high, and they fly only so-so. More often they prefer to walk.

The cicada is much tougher to the touch than it looks, and its wings are so dense that you feel like you could cut yourself with them. But in reality they are harmless to humans.

Both male and female cicadas chirp, although the latter do this extremely rarely. But the males, wanting to attract “ladies,” fill the air with a very loud song - up to 100 decibels. Sometimes it can be heard from a distance of 800 meters.

Locust

It is possible that a locust or grasshopper is giving a concert in your garden. This is the closest relative of grasshoppers, found almost everywhere except in the coldest areas. They feed only on plants.

Locusts have become notorious for their monstrous appetite and ability to gather in swarms of billions. Every day, locusts eat as much plant food as they weigh. It would seem that this is not much, only 2 g, but a flock of a billion insects already absorbs 2000 tons! In Russia, locusts live in the lower reaches of the Volga, Ural, Don, and Terek.

Locusts (small species of locust) have more modest appetites, but are found everywhere. They can be seen even in the center of a large city.

Photo: www.globallookpress.com

What bird chirps but not a magpie?

So, the crow croaks, the jackdaw cackles, the sparrows chirp, the finch snorts, beats, the eagle owl hoots...

crows - croaking turkey - crowing, clucking owl - crowing, swans - bittern crowing - plumping geese - cackling, hissing, sometimes squealing goose and coccyx - duck squealing - rooster quacks - hen crowing - cackling, clucking crane - coursing, titmouse crowing - tinkling, shading, forging, kicking starlings - tsvirinking, magpie - chirping, woodpecker chirping - oriole knocking - hoopoe whistling - nightingale pipes - waxwing is clicking, pouring, whistling - grouse waxing with a pipe - chattering (although this is rather a social term, but not vocal), the partridge snorts - croaks, croaks, croaks the capercaillie croaks - the laughing seagull skitters - laughs. The chicks are wheezing. The jay is the best imitator. She creaks, meows, cooers, gurgles woodcock - ferrets, parrot clatters - chattering dove, dove - cooing, strolling, purring owl - cuckoo crowing - chick crowing - blackbird squeaking - stork whistling - swallow clapping - quail chirping - snipe clicking - at when mating, the eagle bleats - the corncrake squawks, the sandpiper - they mutter (a crackling mating song) the nightjar - the tawny owl (a genus of owls) cries pitifully - squeals, nasals, and the long-eared owl - yelps, barks, and even coughs they also talk about nightingales - starlings are scattered with trills - the lark is mocking - the peacock rings, trills - screeches (Dal has this verb) The song thrush - as you know, invites Spiridon to drink tea.

Source

Brief information about the insect

Crickets are a family of orthoptera insects. Their closest relatives are grasshoppers, locusts, and cockroaches. From an evolutionary point of view, they all have a fairly respectable age, because their group was formed approximately 300 million years ago, during the Late Carboniferous era. This is 120 million years earlier than the beginning of the Jurassic period.

There are 2,300 species of this insect around the world. Most of them live in hot and humid climates, and only about 50 of them inhabit the territory of the CIS countries. The most common and famous of them are the field cricket (preferring life in fields, meadows and the edges of light deciduous forests) and the brownie, which chooses proximity to humans. It often climbs into houses and adjacent buildings, living in secluded corners and feeding on other insects.

Externally, a cricket looks like a grasshopper. But they differ in the structure of their legs and the way their wings fold. In addition, grasshoppers thrive in dry climates, while crickets prefer high humidity.