Chirp, creak, buzz
Z eet-zeet-zeet!
Cree-cree-cree!
Ch-ch-ch-ch-urrrrr !
Those are some of the insect noises you can hear on a
hot summer night.
Most of the chirps, creaks, and buzzes you hear are
made by crickets, grasshoppers, katydids, and cicadas.
The male insects make some of these noises to can to the
fem ale insects.
None of these insects makes its noise with its mouth.
A male katydid makes its noise by rubbing its wings
together. On one wing the katydid has a row of little
teeth. On the other wing is a hard little scraper. When
the scraper is rubbed over the teeth it makes the noise.
You can make the same kind of noise by rubbing a pencil
over the teeth of a comb.
Most insects make a buzzing noise when they fly. The
noise is made by their wings moving up and down. Even
so small an insect as a housefly makes a loud buzzing
when it flies. But no insect has a voice. And although
insects seem able to hear, most of them have no ears.
Grasshoppers, crickets, and katydids have ears,
though. But the ears are in strange places. A grasshopper’s
ears are on its sides! And a katydid’s ears are
on its legs!
This is what a katydid’s noisemakers look like through a microscope.
They are on the male katydid’s wings.This is what a female katydid’s leg looks like through a microscope.
The hole is her ear.
Katydid
This insect gets its name from the noise it makes. The noise sounds like
“katy did-katy didn’t- katy did-katy didn’t.”
