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Article: Noisy boys.(mating calls of crickets, grasshoppers, katydids and cicadas)
- Article from:
- Ranger Rick
- Article date:
- September 1, 1995
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1995 National Wildlife Federation. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Imagine walking across a grassy field on a sunny day or camping in the woods on a warm, starlit night. Now listen closely--what do you hear?
Maybe it's the sound of birds calling. Maybe it's someone blasting Nirvana from a boombox. Or maybe--SCRITCH, SCRATCH, CREAK, BUZZZZZ--it's the sound of noisy insects.
In most parts of the United States, the air is filled with the calls of grasshoppers, cicadas (suh-KAY-duhz), crickets, and katydids from early summer to late fall. That's when the males go looking for mates. Their sounds are signals that say to the females, "Come mate with me!" (A few female katydids and grasshoppers answer back, but their sounds are ...