Insects such as crickets are well known for their ability to produce amazingly loud sounds for creatures of such a modest size. At the same time, visually determine that this is a cricket, not everyone can afford it – you can hear them well, especially in the evenings, but to make them out is quite difficult because of their secrecy.
They make such loud sounds by rubbing hard elytra against each other. In Russia and in some Asian countries, crickets were sometimes used as “song insects.” They were kept in small cages, and they attracted lovers with their “singing”. They are sometimes bred as live food for domestic reptiles and amphibians. Crickets are characterized by cannibalism. Their adults, on occasion, eagerly eat young animals. For a comfortable existence, they need high humidity, so they practically do not occur in the arid regions of the planet. In the 1990s, crickets in the Hawaiian Islands became victims of the parasitic flies Ormia ochracea, which laid larvae in males, finding them by chirping. Now on the island of Kauai, almost all males are silent – due to an accidental mutation, the teeth on their wings changed position and no longer cling to each other. But the chirping of crickets is necessary to attract females, so silent males are now waiting for them next to those males who have not yet lost the ability to make a sound.
The chirping of these insects is easily confused with the chirping of grasshoppers. Their closest relatives in terms of biology is the common locust. At one time, a female cricket can set aside up to 500. Only males are endowed with the ability to make loud noises in these insects. That is how they attract females. In medieval Japan, “singing competitions” of domestic crickets were popular among noble people. The organ, which replaces the ears of crickets, looks like an oval groove, and it is located on the legs of these insects. A person is almost impossible to detect this creature by chirping. The crickets hear very thinly, and they instantly pick up the steps, after which they immediately shut up. There is a special formula for determining the air temperature using these insects. It was taken out as far back as 1887, when scientists found that the frequency of sounds made by crickets directly correlates with the ambient temperature.
In a number of countries, crickets are consumed as they are rich in protein and calcium. And also special chips are made from them. In ancient times, such entertainment as cricket fights has been known in China. The owners of these insects carefully take care of their fighters, since they cost a lot of money. A virus that paralyzes these insects in the foreseeable past has damaged the US economy. There crickets are grown commercially for use as food for exotic pets, but the virus devastated about half of all American cricket farms. Crickets came to North America with the first European colonists. Litter of house crickets can be used as fertilizer. Depending on the species, these insects can be green, red, brown or black. Despite the presence of wings, these insects cannot fly.
As the crickets grow, they molt several times. At the same time, young growth looks like a small copy of an adult. When meeting with each other, male crickets usually fight for territory. Their eyes are made up of many lenses, like the eyes of dragonflies, so their eyesight is excellent. Their average life expectancy in the wild does not exceed one year. The monotonous trills of these insects, like cat purrs, have a calming effect on the human nervous system. In nature, there are about 900 species of crickets.
