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True Facts: How Crickets Became the Soundtrack to Everything

Ze Frank | December 12, 2025



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Credits:

Thank you to Bodo Maass for his wonderful sound wave visualization tool: https://www.sygyt.com/soundwave/

Dr Greg Sutton
Dr Chloe Goode
Shannon Harrison
Dr Charlie Woodrow
Dr Bill Heitler
Dr Malcolm Burrows
Dr Hojun Song
Dr Norman Lee
Dr Peter Falkingham, https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLHmVDY_HFwR6Fy0futGK9Nr49wVzjhrax
Dr Gerlind Lehmann
Dr Inga Geipel
Dr Rajat Mittal
Bug of the Week, https://www.youtube.com/@BugOfTheWeek
jpaur, @jpaur

Citations

Baker & Broom. Natural History Museum Sound Archive I: Orthoptera: Gryllotalpidae Leach, 1815, https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.3.e7442

Bayley, T. G.et al; A buckling region in locust hindlegs contains resilin and absorbs energy… https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.068080

Burrows & Morris. Jumping and kicking in bush crickets. 10.1242/jeb.00214.

Celiker E et al. The Auditory Mechanics of the Outer Ear of the Bush Cricket, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bpj.2019.11.3394.

Celiker E et al. Mechanical network equivalence between the katydid and mammalian inner ears. 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1012641.

Dominguez, J et al, Resource competition affects developmental outcomes of the acoustic parasitoid fly O. ochracea, https://doi.org/10.1093/aesa/saaf018

Duncan J et al. Differentiation between left and right wing stridulatory files in the field cricket G. bimaculatus. 10.1016/j.asd.2021.101076.

Geipel, I et al, Bats Actively Use Leaves as Specular Reflectors to Detect Acoustically Camouflaged Prey, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2019.06.076.

Goode & Sutton. Control of high-speed jumps: the rotation and energetics of the locust. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00360-022-01471-4

Goode CK et al. Control of high-speed jumps in muscle and spring actuated systems: a comparative study of take-off energetics in bush-crickets and locusts. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00360-023-01524-2

Harrison SL et al. Jumping up a level: Target distance and angle estimation facilitates successful landing in a jumping glass katydid. 10.1016/j.isci.2025.112738.

Henderson P et al. Reproductive anatomy and embryogenesis of a viviparous, phonotactic, parasitoid fly. 10.1093/aesa/saaf021.

Hustert R et al Mechanosensory pegs constitute stridulatory files in grasshoppers. 10.1002/(sici)1096-9861(19990802)410:3444

Jafari S et al Acoustic burrow structures of European mole crickets, G. gryllotalpa.

Jirik KJ et al Parasitoid-host eavesdropping reveals temperature coupling of preferences to communication signals. 10.1098/rspb.2023.0775.

Jonsson T et al Auditory mechanics in a bush-cricket: direct evidence of dual sound inputs in the pressure difference receiver. 10.1098/rsif.2016.0560.

Lee, N et al Developing a Phonotaxis Performance Index to Uncover Signal Selectivity in Walking Phonotaxis. 10.3389/fevo.2019.00334

Li X et al Micromorphological differentiation of left and right stridulatory apparatus in crickets. 10.11646/zootaxa.4127.3.8.

Ma S et al The Steering Jump Control of a Locust Bio‐Robot… 10.1002/aisy.202270042.

Merry JW Those Who Wish to Sing Always Find a Song: Call Loss and Reinvention in Hawaiian Crickets, Saint Francis University.

Mikel-Stites MR et al, A biologically accurate model of directional hearing in the parasitoid fly Ormia ochracea, https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.09.15.460520

Montealegre-Z F et al Mechanical phase shifters for coherent acoustic radiation in the stridulating wings of crickets: the plectrum mechanism. 10.1242/jeb.022731.

Robillard & Desutter-Grandcolas The complex stridulatory behavior of the cricket E. guyanensis 10.1016/j.jinsphys.2011.02.005.

Robillard T et al Bioacoustics of the Neotropical Eneopterinae. https://doi.org/10.1080/09524622.2014.996915

Rogers SM et al RNAi of the elastomeric protein resilin reduces jump velocity and resilience to damage in locusts, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2415625121

Strauss, J What determines the number of auditory sensilla in the tympanal hearing organs of Tettigoniidae? 10.3897/jor.28.33586.

Stumpner & Nowotny Neural Processing in the Bush-Cricket Auditory Pathway. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-40462-7_9

Umbers KDL et al Ferocious Fighting between Male Grasshoppers. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0049600

Vedenina V et al New data on bioacoustics and courtship behaviour in grasshoppers. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1200.118422

Wikle AW et al Neural and behavioral evolution in an eavesdropper with a rapidly evolving host. 10.1016/j.cub.2025.01.019.

Windmill JF et al Time-resolved tympanal mechanics of the locust. 10.1098/rsif.2008.0131.

Zuk M et al Silent night: adaptive disappearance of a sexual signal in a parasitized population of field crickets. 10.1098/rsbl.2006.0539.

Written by Ze Frank

Comments

This post currently has 20 comments.

  1. @raininthespringtime

    December 12, 2025 at 9:33 pm

    The worst thing in the world is when a cricket decides to sneak into your house , hide under the refrigerator, and then proceed to sing it’s “I’m free for sexy time” serenade at three in the morning.😑😑😑😑😑😑

  2. @OddWomanOut_Pi81

    December 12, 2025 at 9:33 pm

    Your irreverent take on the science behind how nature works will always be MY preferred inlet for knowledge… Sometimes I miss s~~t for laughing so hard, but thank the science hippie gods for rewind. 😄😄😄

  3. @Ian_sothejokeworks

    December 12, 2025 at 9:33 pm

    Little known fact: the first "Record Scratch" sound, the one where something awkward just happened, and everybody stops to stare, it was a recording of a Madagascar Bumpo cricket. How the cricket managed to own a record player, let alone scratch the record is a mystery.

  4. @dwarfbunni

    December 12, 2025 at 9:33 pm

    I had just bought 200 crickets for my frogs as a child. one day the unthinkable happened and I dropped the container. we fell asleep to a beautiful sound every night and then every 20 minutes one of us would scream bloody murder because one was in the bed, thank god we had a cat

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