Why the Cricket Chirps

These are the days when the songs of the cricket and the cicada are heard in the land. Appropriately enough, American and British scientists have published some arresting studies of the motivations of the noisy insects.

Cicadas, long known to buzz to attract mates, also make loud noises to discourage birds from eating them while they are mating, reports Princeton Psychologist James Simmons. Several thousand cicadas encountered in a tree near Princeton produced a volume of 80 to 100 decibels when measured from 60 feet away--a noise equivalent to a jackhammer or a screeching subway. Such a sound, Simmons says, could damage the eardrums of a curious mammal and pain the sensitive hearing of a cicada-eating bird.

Mole crickets, so named because they dig underground burrows, also make loud noises with amorous intent, says British Zoologist H.C. Bennet-Clark. In fact, they make their burrows in the shape of double-horned acoustic amplifiers to concentrate and focus their siren sounds for maximum effect in attracting females. They produce the noise by rubbing a toothed vein on one forewing with a pluck on the other. University of Florida Entomologist Thomas J. Walker explains that male field crickets produce three identifiable songs: one to hail a likely lover, another to beguile one already enthralled, and a third to warn off a potential rival. The kind of sound a cricket makes depends on the species, the air temperature and the circumstances in which the individual insect finds himself; There is no telling what loud sounds of pain or pleasure a cricket might make if he found himself decked out like Walt Disney's Jiminy.

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