Why do grasshoppers and crickets chirp?

How does a cricket sing?

The difference in structure between the male and female allows the former to make chirping sounds. The fact is that only male crickets have a special acoustic apparatus that allows crickets to sing, and serves them for certain purposes.

Read also: Table of specific heat capacities

Cricket folds its wings horizontally

How do crickets make sounds? The insect's musical instrument is the elytra, and the mechanism of their operation during singing is reminiscent of playing the violin. They have veins, small wrinkles or folds. Their distribution over the surface is uneven, so when a certain area is exposed, a sound corresponding to it is produced. This makes the cricket's repertoire much richer than that of similar grasshoppers. The second elytra acts as a bridge with a jagged vein. The insect rubs its elytra against each other, creating vibration, and due to this, chirping appears. The intonation and nature of the “music” produced by the winged “singer” depends on the frequency of vibrations.

The sound apparatus of crickets is much more complex than that of grasshoppers. Therefore, it can produce a variety of sounds, each of which is suitable for a specific situation.

How to get rid of a cricket

Why is a cricket in the house dangerous?

The main thing is that it interferes with normal sleep. Harmful to exposed food and finishing materials. Insect waste products cause allergic reactions. But they rarely bite.

Where to look

Crickets love warmth, so they climb up where cold air does not reach or closer to heating appliances and the stove. Here it is worth covering up the cracks and blocking insects from accessing the hanging shelves. Crickets also like to hide in wet rags and paper, but their favorite place is the kitchen.

Methods of disposal

There are several options to drive away a cricket:

catch with sticky traps or poison with alcohol vapor in a 2-level trap;
treat the settlement areas with a decoction of wormwood, pyrethrum powder or Persian chamomile, fumigate with sealing wax smoke or use other folk methods;
among chemical preparations, products with dichlorvos are most often used.

To destroy the offspring, repeat treatment is done. To prevent crickets from appearing, the kitchen should be cleaned more often and thoroughly, dried and ventilated.

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

When they chirp

Typically, crickets begin making sounds after sunset. It is in complete darkness that these musicians leave their hiding places. In nature, where crickets are not negatively affected by human activity, it is not a problem to hear these insects even during the day. Day and night they can also be heard during the mating season. Silencing this “musician” is quite simple; just get close to him at a certain distance. Sensing danger, the cricket will immediately hide in its hole.

Interesting fact! At night, crickets feel safe, which is why they make sounds mainly after sunset.

The structural features of the acoustic apparatus of grasshoppers do not allow them to make sounds at night. As soon as dew begins to fall, the wet organ cannot make sounds. Therefore, grasshoppers chirp exclusively during the day.

The Japanese simply adore these little “musicians”, so many breed them at home to enjoy this melody all the time.

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?

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.

How and by what means is sound produced?

Few people know what representatives of this insect species do to chirp. The principle of sound production in crickets is the same as in grasshoppers, but with a more advanced mechanism, so the sounds of crickets are more melodious and varied.

On a note! At night, only crickets chirp - the sound production apparatus of grasshoppers is designed differently and cannot produce sounds when wet, which occurs after dew falls in the evening. The “songs” of grasshoppers can only be listened to during the daytime.

Grasshopper

To produce sounds, the cricket has teeth on the base of one elytra, and a chirping cord on the other. To obtain sharp vibrating movements to produce sound, the insect lifts up the trembling bases of the elytra. This is how a cricket makes a sound.

Sound quality depends on several conditions:

Temperatures. Crickets are heat-loving insects. If the ambient temperature is below +20 °C, they may hibernate. Crickets sing loudest on hot summer nights, but the cooler it is outside, the quieter their musical trills become.
Weather conditions. During strong winds and rainy weather, crickets are silent.
Age. It is the adult males who sing more beautifully and loudly. Just by the way the insect chirps, you can determine whether it is a sexually mature or young male.

Where does sound come from?

The answer to the question of how a cricket makes sounds lies in its structure.
Grasshoppers and crickets chirp according to the same principle, but the apparatus for producing sounds is more advanced in 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.

On a hot summer night you can observe the most active and intense sound of cricket music.

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.

Sounds of music

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. This is necessary to increase immunity to interference. But species that chirp in flight make do well with a narrower frequency range - after all, in open space, sound travels very far.

Grasshoppers ignored ultrasonic signals from predator bats

oliver.dodd/flickr

Scientists have found that the grasshoppers of Neotropical forests use proactive measures to protect themselves from predators - chirping for no more than two seconds a night - although they hear the ultrasonic signals of bats and could only hide when they approach. The fact is that a third party enters into the relationship between predator and prey - other bats that do not feed on grasshoppers. Most of the echolocation signals belong to them, and the connection between ultrasound and the predator is disrupted. The article was published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences

Cricket in different cultures

There are a great many signs about crickets in the house, and what is most interesting is that they predict completely different events. Fortunately, not only bad ones.

Scandinavians do not like crickets. In their folklore, it is presented in the form of a “black creature” with a demon inside, therefore, if it has got into the house, then there is only one way out: you definitely need to get rid of the insect.

Christian traditions are more lenient towards the winged creature, since it is considered a sign of well-being. The ancient Slavs saw him as a bright messenger who was supposed to improve family relationships. Our ancestors did not even scrub in the place where the cricket sat, so as not to sweep away the good that had settled in the dwelling with it.

Once upon a time, American Indians revered the cricket because it guarded their settlements and could warn of danger by chirping loudly.

In Asia, crickets are specially kept in homes, because people there are convinced of its ability to bring good luck to a person.

Cricket habitat

Crickets are a species of Orthoptera from the cricket family. They are distributed everywhere, but some species are native to the Far East and North Africa.

With the onset of cold weather, crickets tend to move into people's homes.

Europe, North America, South Australia are the main habitats of these insects. The subtropics and tropics, as well as the southern regions of our country, have become home to crickets. A group of Orthoptera appeared on Earth about 300 million years ago. There are about 3,700 species of crickets in the world. There are 30-40 species living in Russia.

Crickets live in the open air in warm weather; when it gets colder, they move closer to human homes and settle in houses, farms, and heating plants. House crickets are common wherever people live. They love warmth, and often live behind the stove in houses.

Although they brought a lot of trouble with their nightly chirping, people did not always get rid of unwanted guests, since according to many signs they promise happiness, good luck, protection from evil forces, recovery from illness, and easy delivery of a healthy baby to pregnant women. Therefore, these home guardians often remain untouched in their warm corners.

Crickets feel most comfortable in old buildings, where there is high humidity, a lot of old rugs and enough cracks for living. But even during repairs and complete reconstruction of the house, the insect can remain and live in an apartment building on the top floor.

House cricket

In the East, insects that produce beautiful melodies, such as the cricket and the cicada, were kept in special cages in homes, just like songbirds. And today, some exotic animal lovers keep crickets to enjoy their sounds.

To do this, use an aquarium, terrarium or special insectarium. Insects need systematic care

It is especially important to change the soil every 3 days, otherwise the unusual pet may die. Although crickets are predators in their natural habitat, when kept at home they are also fed plant foods: vegetables, fruits, herbs

The singing of crickets is very beautiful and varied. It's worth a trip out of town.

The grasshopper is an arthropod insect, belongs to the superorder New-winged insects, the order Orthoptera, the suborder Orthoptera, the superfamily grasshopper (lat. Tettigonioidea

The Russian word “grasshopper” is considered a diminutive of the word “smith”. But, most likely, it has nothing to do with the forge, but comes from the Old Russian “izok”, meaning “June”. Almost 7 thousand known species of grasshoppers live on every continent except Antarctica. Due to such diversity, even an experienced entomologist cannot always determine the species identity of a particular individual.

The complex hearing apparatus, that is, the grasshopper's ears, is located on the shins of the insect's front legs. Thus, we can say that the grasshopper hears with its feet. The oval membranes that are located on both sides of the lower leg act as eardrums. In some species of grasshoppers, the membranes are open, in others they are closed with special caps. The structure of the hearing aid consists of nerve endings, muscles, and sensory cells. The structure also includes 2 branches of the trachea, which approach the eardrums.

Grasshoppers have noticeable sexual dimorphism: females are much larger than males and have a sickle-shaped or straight, arrow-like ovipositor. The lifespan of a grasshopper, including the egg stage, is only one season.

and chestnuts), and some of them are noted as serious agricultural pests. Unlike the same related locusts, which eat farmers' crops, grasshoppers are more beneficial. For example, they help get rid of fields that have taken a fancy to them.

In conditions of autonomous maintenance and lack of nutrients, grasshoppers have even been observed in cannibalism, that is, eating their own kind. A simple experiment showed that if you put several of these insects in a closed jar and leave them without food for a couple of days, the group will eventually suffer losses among their relatives.

It may seem surprising, but if the grasshopper does not receive its “dose” of protein and salts from ordinary food, then it does not disdain to feed on feces and carrion, and also eats its weaker relatives with appetite.

On a summer evening it is so pleasant to listen to the trill of insects in the grass. They do not stop playing music until dawn, which allows you to thoroughly enjoy the melody. To understand the etiology and causes of these sounds, it is necessary to consider the simple process that crickets do to create such a melody.

Why do grasshoppers chirp?

The chirping of a grasshopper resembles a sharp crackling sound, gentle, sometimes quieter, sometimes louder. It seems that the grasshoppers persistently and sharply “break” dry grass and stems. In fact, grasshoppers rub their front or hind legs against each other or against their wings, which are equipped with bristles. The bristles are quite hard, so there is a cracking sound that is so familiar to every person.

Only males can chatter. These are their mating songs. They attract and fascinate females with their “charming” sounds. Females do not need this, so they simply do not have the “tools” for cod.

When danger approaches, grasshoppers instantly fall silent. This saves the grasshoppers from real enemies. That's why, when you walk through a field, meadow or clearing in a park, you don't hear grasshoppers nearby. But if you stand still and remain motionless for at least a few minutes, you will be rewarded with the choral singing of all the males in the area.

It is not easy to spot a grasshopper in the grass. If they jump, you will see their bodies flashing in the grass. They adapt to the surrounding grass on which they feed. Therefore, they come in green, brown-green, brown colors.

But if you stand for a minute without moving, the owners of the meadows and fields will begin to choose convenient places on your body. Some will jump on your shoes, while others will reach your shoulder. The higher you are, the better you can see.

True, grasshoppers do not use sight, but they have perfect hearing. Don't scare off the guest, try to look at him carefully. And if a male jumps on you, then you will examine his entire “musical” instrument.

It has been proven that the sound of a grasshopper has a beneficial effect on the human nervous system. It is monotonous, not intrusive and rhythmic. If nothing distracts you, then after listening to the chirping for about five minutes, you will no longer distinguish it from other sounds of the surrounding nature. And you will hear the music of nature, which will free you from unnecessary stress and cleanse you from the sounds and voices of the city. Refreshed, you return to your business.

Contrary to popular belief, grasshoppers do not make any sounds with their paws. The stinging apparatus of insects of the order Orthoptera, which, by the way, includes not only grasshoppers, but also locusts and crickets, is located on the upper leathery pair of wings (elytra). Insects produce acoustic signals by rubbing the vein of one elytra (frame or bow) against another elytra, which is called a mirror.

It is interesting that in different species of Orthoptera the structure of the stridulatory apparatus is different, which allows them to produce different trills. If the beat frequency of the vein coincides with the vibration frequency of the second elytra, then the resonance of the sound system emits pure sound signals. If there is no correspondence, the insect’s trills are heard as separate clicks. Experienced chirping entomologists are able to determine which insect is producing it.

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.

Why do grasshoppers chirp?

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.

House cricket - description, characteristics, photo. What does a cricket look like?

House crickets are quite small in size; adult individuals can reach only 16 to 26 mm in length. The color of the domestic cricket is gray-yellow, also in different shades of brown, with streaks or spots of indeterminate shape.

The cricket's head is shaped like a flattened egg. Also on it (the head) there are three dark arcuate stripes. The cricket's eyes are located on the sides of the head; they have a complex facet structure. The cricket's mouth is of the gnawing type in structure. But the real pride of crickets is their large mustaches, which can sometimes be several times larger than the body of the crickets themselves. The cricket's whiskers serve a practical purpose - they are responsible for the sense of touch.

The cricket's wings are also well developed. The back pair of strong membranous wings helps them fly from place to place with ease. Crickets can also make relatively long flights. At rest, the cricket's wings are located along the abdomen; they look like sharp and long tails.

Like other orthoptera insects, the cricket has three pairs of legs. The back legs of a cricket with thickened thighs are the strongest; they are designed for jumping, because it is no secret that crickets (as well as their relatives, grasshoppers) are simply excellent jumpers. But the front legs of the cricket also perform functions that are quite unusual for legs—the hearing organs are located on them.

Description and area of residence

The true cricket is a typical representative of the family of Orthoptera jumping insects. Its close relatives are grasshoppers and locusts. The insect has an elongated body, a large head, and a gnawing type mouthparts. The antennae are long, thread-like, and vision is well developed. The hind legs with thickened thighs allow them to push off when jumping.

The elytra are dense, leathery, the wings are fan-shaped with veins. Females have an ovipositor, which they use to cut through stems to lay eggs. Few people know what a cricket looks like, but they have heard its chirping at dusk. It creates its trills by rubbing the elytra. The faster the vibration, the higher the sound. The special structure of the elytra makes it possible to produce sounds in a wide range. The insects are widespread in Asia, Europe, North Africa and America. In Australia they are found only in Adelaide, where they were introduced from other countries. They find cracks for housing, dig holes or hide under stones. Activity falls in the summer months, because at temperatures below +21, insects become lethargic and stop feeding. The love of warmth forced crickets to seek refuge in human habitation. With the onset of autumn, they move into houses, heated warehouses and industrial buildings.