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Misconception/Misinformation #11:
Insects produce sound by "singing" with a
"voice".
Examples containing misinformation:
- "Does your cricket sing? If it does, you are most likely
the proud host of a full-grown male cricket. In general, only adult males
sing..." From: Cricketology by Michael Elsohn Ross. Minneapolis:
Carlorhoda Books, Inc., 1996, p. 28. ISBN 0-87614-985-9
- "When he was wide-awake and alone in his crib, he would
lie on his back and hold his foot in hand and sing, zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz,zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz,
to himself, and that is the sound honeybees sing in the fields of clover."
From: But Not Billy by Charlotte Zolotow.
- "CRISSY CRICKET calls out 'CREE-CREE' and 'RETREAT-RETREAT'
on a summer night. She likes to make pretty music for you." From: Please
Don't Step On Me by Elly-Kree George. Cherokee, N.C.: Cherokee Publications,
1988, p. 20. ISBN 1-56711-176-9
- "A male cricket does not chirp with his voice. "
From: Chirping Crickets by Melvin Berger. New York, NY: Harper Collins
Publishers. 1988, p. 8. ISBN 0-06-445180-1
Explanation:
The sounds you hear coming from insects are not "sung".
The male cricket rubs its wings together as part of a mating ritual and to establish
and defend territories. Special structures, called a file and scraper, exist
on wings that, when rubbed together, make the chirping sound with which we are
familiar. Only male crickets have this mechanism of sound production.
Examples of other insects which make noises:
- Tap beetles hit their abdomen on hard ground surfaces to
attract mates
- Cicadas make loud summertime buzz sounds via vibrating-membranes,
or tymbal, organs
- Madagascan hissing cockroaches push air through tiny openings
called spiracles on the sides of their abdomen
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