What’s All the Buzz? – Insect Noises and How They’re Made

What’s All the Buzz? – Insect Noises and How They’re Made

Grasshoppers/Crickets

Crickets and grasshoppers are part of the order Orthoptera, which accounts for their similarities that make them difficult to distinguish. Both creatures are famous for their chirping noises, however, they make this unique noise (known as stridulation) in very different ways. Crickets stridulate by rubbing their wings together, while grasshoppers rub their hind legs against their wings to produce their song. Interestingly, there are some species of crickets, such as camel crickets, that cannot produce the chirping noises at all.

Cicadas

Cicadas produce a recognizable loud noise that is often described as a chirping, thrumming, or even electric noise. The male bugs have a structure on their abdomens shaped like a drum called ‘tymbals.’ The reverberation of the structure causes ½ of the familiar cicada sound as it is the catalyst for a return mating call. The females flick their wings together rapidly, creating the second part of the high-pitched song. So, while it sounds like one peculiar chirping noise, it is, in fact more like a little duet being performed by hundreds of insects at once. Surprisingly, the noise can actually be so powerful is surpasses 90 decibels.

Bees and Wasps

Bees, wasps, yellow jackets, and hornets are so well known for their buzzing noises that they are often called “buzzing pests.” These noises are created by the rapid beating of their wings causing vibrational disruption in the air around them. Larger bees and wasps beat their wings slower, resulting in a lower pitched buzz, and some bee species (such as bumblebees) can even produce a secondary type of buzz while resting on flowers. This buzz is created by a special vibration of their wing muscles and thorax, and is used to shake pollen off of the flower and onto the bee so it can groom the pollen onto special pollen-carrying structures on their body and bring it back to their colony.

Wolf Spiders

Spiders don’t have ears… so why would they make noise? Well, sound is a series of vibrations that can be carried through the air in order to be processed within our eardrums. So, while many animals and insects can digest these vibrations auditorily, spiders processing the vibrations through feel. The noise that wolf spiders make is often referred to as “purring. It is created through the scraping of two small rough appendages near their mouth together and transmitting that vibration through leaves to attract mates.

Citations

Britton, D. (2020) Grasshoppers, crickets, katydids and locusts: Order Orthoptera, The Australian Museum. Available at: https://australian.museum/learn/animals/insects/grasshoppers-crickets-katydids-and-locusts-order-orthoptera/ (Accessed: June 22, 2021). Geggel, L. (2015) ‘Purring’ Wolf Spiders Softly Serenade Mates, Live Science. Available at: https://www.livescience.com/51006-wolf-spiders-vibrate-for-courtship.html (Accessed: June 2020). Grasshoppers and Crickets (Order: Orthoptera) (no date) The Amateur Entomologists’ Society. Available at: https://www.amentsoc.org/insects/fact-files/orders/orthoptera.html (Accessed: June 15, 2021). Otis, G. (2005) Why do bees buzz?, Scientific American. Springer Nature America, INC. Available at: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-do-bees-buzz/ (Accessed: July 7, 2021). Roche, J. (2015) The Origin of Grasshoppers, Katydids, and Crickets: A New Study Resolves the Evolutionary Tree of the Orthoptera, Entomology Today. The Entomological Society of America. Available at: https://entomologytoday.org/2015/04/08/the-origin-of-grasshoppers-katydids-and-crickets-a-new-study-resolves-the-evolutionary-tree-of-the-orthoptera/ (Accessed: June 15, 2021). Rogers, J. (2020) Get Set for the Return of Cicadas and Their ‘Alien-like Wail’ After 17 Years Underground, Fox News. Available at: https://www.foxnews.com/science/return-cicadas-alien-like-wail-after-17-years-underground (Accessed: July 2020). Simpson, V. (2020) What Are The Differences Between Crickets And Grasshoppers?, WorldAtlas. Available at: https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/what-are-the-differences-between-crickets-and-grasshoppers.html (Accessed: June 22, 2021).