Insects: Finding your soul mate
Other insects use sound to summon prospective mates (e.g. cicadas, crickets and grasshoppers). Sound in Grasshoppers is produced by sawing the notched edge of their hindlimb against the strengthened vein of the wing. Cicadas have an abdomen which contains two chambers, the inner wall of each chamber is stiff and when it moves in or out it makes a click. In the abdomen behind there is a large muscle which can pull the wall back 600 times a second and the noise created is amplified in the abdomen using a hollow vibrating plate and two hollow rectangular resonators. Sound is received from eardrums on either side of the thorax in cicadas, but grasshoppers use a membrane situated between two deep slits along their first pair of thighs. With each species having a unique sound, they can recognize and attract appropriate mates of the same species. Moths use a third sense, smell to attract mates. Females produce chemical compounds called pheromones which male moths are able to detect with their large, feathery antennae.
Sound is received from eardrums on either side of the thorax in cicadas
