After spending several months – even years – in the ground as larvae, the cicadas come out of the ground when the fine weather arrives. They only have a few weeks left to live and they intend to make the most of it.
You will also be interested
[EN VIDÉO] Cicada wings, real bacteria knives The wings of the cicada Psaltoda claripennis are capable of destroying certain microorganisms. The surface nanostructures of the wings of these insects puncture and kill bacteria.
At the cicadas, it is exclusively the male that sings. He can sing to signal the presence of a predator, to repel another male or in case of panic if taken in his hand, for example. But the one we call song of the cicadas corresponds to a nuptial call. Indeed in summer, males sing, first to attract females, then to court them.
Technically, it’s actually not correct to say that cicadas sing. The cicada cymbals. That characteristic sound that enchants your summer holidays is not produced by the mouth of the cicadas, but by a kind of membranes – called the cymbals – located at the base of the wings. Muscles allow it to “snap” up to 900 times per second, like what happens with a curved sheet metal that passes from concavetoconvex .
Why do cicadas stop singing at night?
Other anatomical particularities of the male cicada: an empty belly which serves as a sounding board and dampers, kinds of flaps placed between the birth of the rear legs and the abdomen and which let through more or less sound.
And if ultimately cicadas only sing when it’s hot, it’s primarily for an anatomical reason. Because their cymbals only become soft enough when temperatures exceed 22°C. That’s why you don’t usually hear cicadas singing on summer nights. But it is also because for the cicada, the heatis conducive to breeding . To attract females more effectively, the males begin to sing louder and louder. Finally, it should be noted that no cicada survives the onset of winter, a period that they spend in the larval state underground. What explains the absence of cicada songs around thefirof Christmas.
Interested in what you just read?