That is one classy beautiful green bug. :cool:Quote:
Originally Posted by wombat2u2004
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That is one classy beautiful green bug. :cool:Quote:
Originally Posted by wombat2u2004
Wow...he is much prettier than our version of the cicada.Quote:
Originally Posted by wombat2u2004
Country living is a good thing!
That deafening drone
Cicadas are the most efficient and loudest sound-producing insects in existence. While Dr Moulds said nobody is exactly sure which species is the loudest, he said the Green Grocer "must be close".
The Green Grocer, Yellow Monday and the Double Drummer produce noise intensity in excess of 120dB at close range (this is approaching the pain threshold of the human ear). Some small species, on the other hand, have songs so high in pitch that the noise is beyond the range of our hearing.
Only the male sings as a mating ritual to attract the females and different species have different songs so they don't attract the wrong females. Cicadas are different to all other insects in that they actually have a musical drum in their abdomen.
The organs that produce sound are the tymbals — a pair of ribbed membranes at the base of the abdomen. Contracting the internal tymbal muscles causes the tymbals to buckle inwards and produce a pulse of sound. By relaxing these muscles, the tymbals pop back to their original position. The inside of the male abdomen is substantially hollow to amplify the sound as it resonates at the frequency of the call.
The loud noise produced by some cicadas actually repels birds. The males of many cicada species tend to group together when calling which increases the total volume of noise and reduces the chances of being eaten by birds.
In addition to the calling or mating song, many species also possess a distress song, usually a broken and erratic noise emitted when an individual is captured. A number of species also have a courtship song, which is usually a quiet call produced only after a female has been attracted nearby using the calling song.
This is a Yellow Monday We get a lot of these and Green Grocers where I live.
http://img1.imagehousing.com/29/436d...9414bfb23a.jpg
http://img1.imagehousing.com/77/bfba...91893975fd.jpg
http://img1.imagehousing.com/46/a35c...db4a606931.jpg