22 August 2024
Proper now fall discipline crickets (Gryllus pennsylvanicus) are within the midst of their breeding season. Like songbirds the males sing to draw a mate.
It’s comparatively onerous to discover a singing cricket as a result of the male is on the bottom, in all probability hidden by vegetation, and going through the doorway to his burrow. He rubs his modified leathery entrance wings, known as tegmina, to make his chirping sound.
The burrow entrance offers an echo chamber that amplifies his sound and, if his chirping attracts a predator, he can shortly zoom underground for security.
Older male crickets are higher at chirping than youthful males so that they appeal to extra females. She approaches …
… they usually mate.
She is going to use her ovipositor to inject 50 eggs into the soil.
After which they’ll go off to eat the seeds of their favourite meals, a lot of that are invasive weeds together with: Easy crabgrass (Digitaria ischaemum), lamb’s quarters (Chenopodium album), English plantain (Plantago lanceolata), switchgrass (Panicum virgatum), widespread ragweed (Ambrosia artemisiifolia) and chicory (Cichorium intybus). [list from Wikipedia]
Do you know that the cricket’s chirp can let you know the temperature? Rely the variety of chirps of a lone cricket for 15 seconds, then add 37. That ought to let you know the temperature in Fahrenheit … in all probability. If it doesn’t, I wish to think about that the burrow entrance is colder or hotter than the ambient air. 😉
Learn extra concerning the cricket’s chirp right here on the Songs of Bugs.
p.s. Did you ever have a cricket in your home? In my expertise they’re actually onerous to seek out until they’re within the nook of a gleaming white lavatory and also you’ve moved every thing out of the way in which to seek out the cricket within the nook.
