{"id":11787,"date":"2024-05-09T22:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-05-09T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/?p=11787"},"modified":"2024-04-26T05:59:31","modified_gmt":"2024-04-26T05:59:31","slug":"why-dont-female-crickets-chirp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/why-dont-female-crickets-chirp\/","title":{"rendered":"Why don\u2019t female crickets chirp?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n I feel a song coming on \u2026\n Paul Starosta\/Stone via Getty images<\/a><\/span>\n <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n\n Floyd W. Shockley<\/a>, Smithsonian Institution<\/a><\/em><\/span>\n\n
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Curious Kids<\/a> is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you\u2019d like an expert to answer, send it to curiouskidsus@theconversation.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n

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Why don\u2019t female crickets chirp? \u2013 Avery, age 8, Los Angeles<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

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Insects communicate in lots of different ways, for many reasons. Some, such as butterflies and beetles, use color, patterns and other visual cues<\/a> to attract mates or warn potential predators that they don\u2019t taste very good. <\/p>\n\n

Others, like fireflies<\/a>, use bioluminescence \u2013 light that they produce in their bodies \u2013 to attract potential mates. Still others send chemical signals<\/a> to interact with other animals and plants, or to defend against predators. <\/p>\n\n

Insects also use sound to communicate, most often to attract mates. The ways in which they produce sounds can vary a lot, depending on what insect is making the sound. <\/p>\n\n

Ah, there\u2019s the rub<\/h2>\n\n

Most insects create sound through a behavior called stridulation<\/a>, which is basically rubbing two body parts against each other to make a noise, like a bow rubbing across a violin string. In all cases, there is a ridged structure on one body part that is rubbed across the surface of another ridged structure on a different body part, producing sound. <\/p>\n\n

Many arthropods \u2013 the group that includes insects, spiders, centipedes, millipedes and lobsters \u2013 stridulate for a variety of reasons. They may do it to establish territory or as a warning, but most commonly they use it to attract a mate. <\/p>\n\n

Stridulation has been most thoroughly studied in grasshoppers, crickets and katydids, which all are members of an insect group called orthopterans<\/a>, meaning \u201cstraight wings.\u201d Grasshoppers and katydids rub a hind leg against a wing to make their songs; crickets rub one of their wings quickly over the surface of their other wing. People often describe this as singing, but it\u2019s really more like playing an instrument. <\/p>\n\n

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