Intersting Facts About a Cricket
Crickets, belonging to the insect family gryllidae, are closely related to katydids and grasshoppers. A female cricket can lay and hatch as many as 2,000 eggs. The insects are a source of nutrition for many carnivorous animals, including humans.
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Types
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Roughly 900 varieties of cricket species exist. They are cold-blooded and chirp at a rate determined by their environment. With most species of cricket, the warmer it is, the faster they chirp.
In parts of Mexico and China, crickets are considered delicacies. Many cultures consider them to be good luck.
Fun Facts
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Crickets have four different "songs," or chirping styles, for different occasions: the calling song (used to attract females); the courting song (used when a female is nearby); the aggressive song (used to scare off potential suitors); and the copulatory song (for mating).
While they don't exactly have ears, crickets do have tympanic membranes that allow them to "hear" the songs of other crickets. These are located just below their knees on their front legs.
By counting the number of chirps an individual cricket makes in fourteen seconds and adding forty, one can arrive at the approximate temperature in Fahrenheit.
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Misconceptions
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Male crickets chirp by rubbing the serrated bottom of one wing against the top of another, not by rubbing their legs together. Female crickets do not chirp at all.
Crickets are frequently confused with grasshoppers, because of a similar body shape.
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References
- Photo Credit cricket image by Gail Oswald from Fotolia.com
