Stridulation

Stridulation is the act of producing sound, usually by rubbing two body parts together.

Some of the most well known insects that stridulate are the grasshoppers and crickets. It is usually only the male that calls and each species has its own distinctive song. The distinctive song is commonly used by entomologists as a way to survey the different species in an area.

Although grasshoppers and crickets are closely related they stridulate in different ways. Grasshoppers have a series of small pegs on the inside of their hind legs. These pegs are rubbed against the fore wing to produce the call. In the case of crickets the pegs are located on one of the fore wings (tegmina), the other fore wing has a flat structure known as a file. The song is produced by the pegs being dragged across the file as the wings rub together.

The field grasshopper (Chorthippus brunneus) is often heard singing during the warm days of summer.

Related terms

• Orthoptera
• Tegmina
• Tymbal

Related groups of terms

• General biology
• Invertebrate body structure

Related pages on this web site

• Cricket caresheet
• Grasshoppers and Crickets - Order Orthoptera

See other words beginning with S