Home>>Column>>Insect

Tahara Singer—Cicada

2023-03-20 03:16:58 118

In the scorching heat of midsummer, the chirping of cicadas can bring a sense of wildness, tranquility and coolness to people. The ups and downs of the cicada's chirping often remind people of childhood scenes. In summer, after a thunderstorm, you can find some round caves on the ground around the tree roots. This is where the cicadas are unearthed. If you are lucky, you can catch cicadas that have not shed their shells.

Cicadas belong to the family Cicadae of the order Homoptera. There are about 2,000 species known in the world, and there are only 200 species in China. They appear in nature at varying times. The cricket is about 2 cm long and dark brown all over. The cricket is the first singer to appear on the stage, with a high-pitched, long and continuous cry.


The grasshopper cicada, also known as the chirping cicada, is the largest in this small family. The body is about 4 centimeters long, and its body is dark and shiny. Its song is rough and loud, and its song is high-pitched and loud, like a tenor. However, their sound is a bit harsh, and when the cicadas sing in unison at noon, it is quite disturbing for people to rest.


The Singing Cicada is solitary and only distributed in mountainous areas. Its cry is always a sad and miserable tone of "woo woo woo... wow", as if it is crying.


The cicada doesn't come on stage until the summer solstice to sing, "It's gone, it's gone" incessantly. As soon as the dog days arrive, it can't wait to tell people "It's gone". Maybe it has good intentions, telling people in advance that the dog days are coming to an end, and please be prepared for the cooler weather.


Chilling cicada, with a body length of about 2.5 cm and a light green head and chest, is also called autumn cicada because it sings happily in late autumn. Cicadas begin to chirp only in autumn, and their singing is the finale of this "Cicada Concert Series". However, they are just "sizzling" notes, sung too monotonously, and their artistic level cannot bear the important task of the finale.


The reason why the cicada can sing is because it has a pair of sounders on its abdomen, which are composed of the tympanic membrane and the tympanic membrane. When the vocal membrane in the membrane contracts, it produces sound waves and makes a loud sound. But don't forget that only male cicadas have singing instruments, and female cicadas are "dumb".


Cicadas belong to the category of gradual metamorphosis with incomplete metamorphosis. Generally, the life history is relatively long, with one generation completed in 2-3 years. The most famous species is the 17-year cicada in the United States. There are also three species of 13-year cicadas, all of which are the longevity stars among insects. Cicadas have a rather peculiar lifestyle. In summer, cicadas die within a week after laying eggs. The eggs hatch in about a month. After hatching, the nymphs fall to the ground and dig their own holes into the soil to live. In the soil, it lives by sucking sap from tree roots with its piercing-sucking mouthparts. They go through a long nymphal stage. After the mature larvae crawl out of the burrow, they slowly climb up the tree trunk and then split from the head and chest. Soon, the adult crawls out of the cicada shell, and its wings spread and dry under the sunlight. The feathering process takes about 1-3 hours. The adults fly to the jungle canopy and pierce tree branches with their piercing-sucking mouthparts to suck sap, causing damage to forest trees, fruit trees, etc. After the adult beetle reaches sexual maturity, the male begins to chirp to attract females for mating. The male worm dies after mating, and the female worm also dies one after another after laying eggs, thereby completing its mission of seeding.


Catching cicadas is different from catching other singing insects. Cicadas have phototaxis. When night falls, you only need to build a fire under the tree trunk and tap the tree trunk at the same time. The cicada will pounce on the fire. At this time, it will quickly come forward to catch it alive. It is very interesting.


animal tags: