WEBVTT - Insect Love Song 0:00:03.080 --> 0:00:06.000 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind from how Stuff 0:00:06.000 --> 0:00:15.040 Works dot com. Hey, welcome to stuff to Blow your mind. 0:00:15.040 --> 0:00:17.320 My name is Robert Lamb and my name is Julie 0:00:17.320 --> 0:00:20.200 Cricket Douglas. That's your your nickname these days because of 0:00:20.280 --> 0:00:23.079 your proficiency in the sport of cricket. No, no, no, 0:00:23.280 --> 0:00:26.400 my chripping. Oh you're chirping. Yes, it's summer. This is 0:00:26.400 --> 0:00:28.600 when I chirped. Yeah. I mean, you know we've talked 0:00:28.600 --> 0:00:31.200 about before. We're social creatures. We want to fall in 0:00:31.280 --> 0:00:33.080 line with what everybody seems to be doing. And if 0:00:33.080 --> 0:00:35.640 you go out on a summer night, even in a 0:00:35.720 --> 0:00:39.440 city of sprawling and is artificial in many places as Atlanta, 0:00:39.880 --> 0:00:41.159 what do you hear at now? You hear this, this 0:00:41.280 --> 0:00:45.760 constant cacophony, This just roar at times of insect life 0:00:45.800 --> 0:00:49.200 in the trees and the grass hiding underneath your house, 0:00:49.320 --> 0:00:53.479 just chirping away, cricking away, making all these crazy noises. 0:00:53.520 --> 0:00:55.080 And you know, after a while, you just give up, 0:00:55.080 --> 0:00:56.920 You fall in line, and you just start chirping at 0:00:56.920 --> 0:00:59.960 the moon, chirping at the moon, dripping at the moon. Yeah, 0:01:00.800 --> 0:01:03.000 it's true. That's what I love about summer is that 0:01:03.120 --> 0:01:06.360 does bring on that cacophony of nature. Yeah, and if 0:01:06.360 --> 0:01:09.560 you're like me, just grab a fresh jug of moonshine 0:01:09.560 --> 0:01:11.559 and you go out onto your porch. You really get 0:01:11.600 --> 0:01:14.000 to enjoy the sounds of nature. What you don't do that? 0:01:14.000 --> 0:01:16.479 It's the South. We're in Georgia. You don't have moonshine. 0:01:16.600 --> 0:01:18.240 Is this store about moonshine or is that are you 0:01:18.280 --> 0:01:21.039 making this in your top? It is hand crafted moonshine 0:01:21.760 --> 0:01:24.319 from my local artisan. Well that's that's the way to 0:01:24.319 --> 0:01:26.880 do it. Then, yeah, yeah, it really is making it 0:01:26.880 --> 0:01:29.000 come back by the way. Oh yeah, and it's you 0:01:29.000 --> 0:01:33.200 have like, yeah, artisan um moonshine showing up people drinking 0:01:33.200 --> 0:01:37.320 out of mason jars and all. Yeah it's quaint, but yeah, 0:01:37.319 --> 0:01:39.000 I mean this is this is the time to really 0:01:39.160 --> 0:01:42.160 enjoy that cacophony. And I did want to point out 0:01:42.240 --> 0:01:44.800 before we start to talk about what some of this um, 0:01:44.840 --> 0:01:48.400 these sounds of nature mean when we really eats drop 0:01:48.440 --> 0:01:51.800 in closely, I did want to point out that crickets 0:01:52.160 --> 0:01:54.880 are really huge in some parts of the world, particularly 0:01:54.880 --> 0:01:59.000 in Japan. Bob Pemberton, he's an associate with the Florida 0:01:59.040 --> 0:02:00.920 Museum of Natural History. He says that there's a rich 0:02:01.000 --> 0:02:05.080 tradition of keeping singing insects, beginning with emperors who kept 0:02:05.080 --> 0:02:08.680 them in cages in their courts, and he's sad. In fact, 0:02:08.720 --> 0:02:11.440 there is a Buddhist temple near Kyoto with a meditation 0:02:11.560 --> 0:02:15.800 room which terrariums filled with tree crickets, and the monkey 0:02:15.919 --> 0:02:20.840 was taking him through this um meditation room said that 0:02:20.960 --> 0:02:25.400 the voice of cricket is the voice of the Buddha. Well, 0:02:25.400 --> 0:02:27.560 that's an interesting way of looking at I mean, certainly 0:02:28.240 --> 0:02:32.160 there's something very meditative about these organic sounds, about about 0:02:32.160 --> 0:02:35.240 bird song or certainly insects sounds. Um, you can you 0:02:35.280 --> 0:02:38.400 can buy CDs filled with these kind of nature sounds 0:02:38.400 --> 0:02:41.079 to help you relax. So it makes sense that before 0:02:41.120 --> 0:02:45.840 the age of New Age meditation albums, you would just 0:02:46.000 --> 0:02:48.160 stemp will simply put a handful of crickets in a 0:02:48.200 --> 0:02:50.959 cage and uh stick that in your yoga in right. Yeah. Yeah, 0:02:51.000 --> 0:02:54.880 Well apparently to like keeping crickets is a thing in Japan, 0:02:54.919 --> 0:02:57.480 like you keep them in little cages or sometimes people 0:02:57.480 --> 0:02:59.840 will drop them into their pockets so they can enjoy 0:02:59.880 --> 0:03:03.679 the sound. Well, you know, growing up, I remember, and 0:03:04.200 --> 0:03:05.960 I don't know to what extent this is like a 0:03:06.080 --> 0:03:08.600 larger thing. If this is like a Southern thing or what. 0:03:08.880 --> 0:03:10.680 But I always heard, you know, if you have a 0:03:10.760 --> 0:03:13.200 cricket in your house, it's good luck. You're not supposed 0:03:13.240 --> 0:03:16.040 to kill a cricket. At most, you're supposed to let 0:03:16.040 --> 0:03:18.080 it go outside, which generally what I tried to do 0:03:18.120 --> 0:03:21.680 with insects of any kind that wander into the house. 0:03:21.960 --> 0:03:24.880 But specifically the cricket was was good luck, and it 0:03:24.960 --> 0:03:27.640 was a bad omen if you squashed it. Did you 0:03:27.680 --> 0:03:29.880 have this? I have never heard of this, never heard 0:03:29.880 --> 0:03:33.040 of it ever. So not a Michigan thing. It's not 0:03:33.120 --> 0:03:35.360 a Michigan thing. I mean, the only reference point I 0:03:35.400 --> 0:03:39.680 have two crickets is my great uncle Louis mcgulley, who 0:03:39.800 --> 0:03:43.839 used to cheap what was that last name, mcgulley from Chicologo, 0:03:44.000 --> 0:03:45.720 who would keep a cricket in his pocket. But I 0:03:45.760 --> 0:03:47.760 think he did that more as like just some sort 0:03:47.800 --> 0:03:49.640 of parlor truck, like a real cricket. Or is this 0:03:49.720 --> 0:03:54.000 like code for a handgun? A good question, but but 0:03:54.040 --> 0:03:56.200 we'll go with a real crick He assuming he had 0:03:56.200 --> 0:03:57.920 a real cricket, he kept a real cricket in his 0:03:57.960 --> 0:04:01.360 pocket at all times. He did we defeat it. I 0:04:01.400 --> 0:04:03.160 don't know. I just heard stories of us, and I 0:04:03.160 --> 0:04:06.200 almostly mean that he replaced this cricket well quite often, 0:04:06.240 --> 0:04:09.080 you'd want otherwise would just be heartbroking breaking to have 0:04:09.320 --> 0:04:10.920 care that that cricket around with you all the time. 0:04:11.000 --> 0:04:12.920 I should also point out, I'm of course talking about 0:04:12.960 --> 0:04:17.320 the cute little black cricket and not the grotesque um 0:04:18.080 --> 0:04:21.720 geeger esque humpback cricket camel cricket. That's funny, said, I 0:04:21.760 --> 0:04:23.840 was about to say ena more. Yeah, because those those 0:04:23.880 --> 0:04:25.839 are the ones that did generally live under the house 0:04:25.920 --> 0:04:29.760 and then creep up into the surface world to gross 0:04:29.800 --> 0:04:32.479 you out, or if you're a cat, enthrall you with 0:04:32.600 --> 0:04:37.080 your jumping ability. Cats love them at them and I'm 0:04:37.120 --> 0:04:40.600 sure they're full protein as well, it's true. Um, So 0:04:40.640 --> 0:04:43.480 shall we lean in close and with the aid of 0:04:43.640 --> 0:04:48.760 entomologists really eavesdrop on that comphony of nature? Yeah, because 0:04:49.320 --> 0:04:52.200 to us it's cacophony. To it it were it at most, 0:04:52.279 --> 0:04:55.880 it's sort of a serene musical performance that we that 0:04:55.960 --> 0:04:58.520 we just kind of take in. But really what we 0:04:58.520 --> 0:05:03.400 are hearing is acid communication in the insect and interact 0:05:03.440 --> 0:05:07.760 need world. Um, mostly insect that we're hearing all of 0:05:07.800 --> 0:05:10.839 the communications is going on at once. We can't understand it. 0:05:10.920 --> 0:05:12.960 We don't know what they're talking about. Um, I mean 0:05:13.040 --> 0:05:15.120 unless you study it. And we're gonna talk about some 0:05:15.160 --> 0:05:17.640 of those studies here shortly. But but yeah, when you 0:05:17.680 --> 0:05:21.160 start breaking it down, uh, these are actual communications. Uh. 0:05:21.240 --> 0:05:26.120 Species talking to like species. Uh species warning enemies to 0:05:26.120 --> 0:05:29.480 stay away from them. Species trying to confuse enemies. Uh. 0:05:29.680 --> 0:05:34.040 Species trying to draw prey into their grasps uh species 0:05:34.640 --> 0:05:37.640 or particular suitors trying to deal with rival suitors or 0:05:37.640 --> 0:05:40.120 attractive may There's all sorts of stuff going on. Just 0:05:40.200 --> 0:05:42.719 imagine like a million different emails or phone calls just 0:05:43.040 --> 0:05:46.120 zipping through the sky invisible. And that's what's going on 0:05:46.440 --> 0:05:49.880 in the insects song world. And there's no better insect 0:05:49.880 --> 0:05:52.719 to start off with than cicadas, which we have covered before. 0:05:52.720 --> 0:05:55.960 We talked about a cicadas and and that throng, that 0:05:56.200 --> 0:05:59.120 humming that you hear in the trees that used to 0:05:59.120 --> 0:06:02.640 to me sonify like the hottest parts of the summer 0:06:03.120 --> 0:06:07.320 and decaying in death. But now now I look at 0:06:07.400 --> 0:06:10.919 this song, is is this really actually beautiful symphony that 0:06:10.960 --> 0:06:13.600 we're putting together. Well, let's hear a quick clip from 0:06:13.600 --> 0:06:17.720 it from the Song of the Cicada U copyright Whenever 0:06:17.760 --> 0:06:20.680 cicadas decided to cross of the ground originally, Uh, here 0:06:20.680 --> 0:06:32.159 we go. Now, I agree with you that for me, 0:06:32.200 --> 0:06:34.599 the sound of the cicadas, it's always just been a 0:06:34.640 --> 0:06:38.919 part of a hot summer, just sweltering out and the 0:06:38.960 --> 0:06:41.920 and the trees the forest around you are just throbbing 0:06:42.040 --> 0:06:45.000 in the same way that the heat is throbbing. And 0:06:45.080 --> 0:06:48.800 in the cyclical nature of the brood emergence. Also, it's 0:06:48.839 --> 0:06:51.880 impossible not to to correlate that with with cycles of 0:06:51.920 --> 0:06:56.960 life and death, you know, especially as the broods vanished 0:06:56.960 --> 0:06:59.680 the cicada song vanishes, other things in your life may 0:06:59.760 --> 0:07:01.920 van sure change as well, and then the cicada has 0:07:01.960 --> 0:07:04.080 come back, and uh, and then there is something kind 0:07:04.080 --> 0:07:06.440 of magical about that. Well, especially if you consider that 0:07:06.440 --> 0:07:08.760 that brood is either thirteen years in the making or 0:07:08.839 --> 0:07:11.680 seventeen years in making, you know, seventeen years underground. And 0:07:11.680 --> 0:07:13.920 then they come out and they sing their very white 0:07:13.960 --> 0:07:17.480 love songs that the males do to the ladies out there, 0:07:17.960 --> 0:07:22.480 and they really do exist just to to reproduce and 0:07:22.560 --> 0:07:24.840 die off. Yeah, And of course, as we discussed in 0:07:24.840 --> 0:07:26.960 our we we didn't eos about cicada's a while back, 0:07:27.040 --> 0:07:29.520 which people can can look up, but they sort of 0:07:29.520 --> 0:07:31.720 an important purpose. You have all these nutrients that are 0:07:31.720 --> 0:07:34.120 locked away in the ground when they're just when they 0:07:34.160 --> 0:07:36.360 when they when they haven't emerged yet, and when they emerge, 0:07:36.360 --> 0:07:38.480 they're bringing all those nutrients out into the world. So 0:07:38.520 --> 0:07:43.120 it's feast day as well for birds, humans, even cats 0:07:43.120 --> 0:07:45.520 of course, anybody who wants to get in on the 0:07:46.080 --> 0:07:48.560 feast of the cicada. Yeah. You know, what's so fascinating 0:07:48.560 --> 0:07:52.080 about that is that they're not quite sure how cicadas 0:07:52.120 --> 0:07:54.760 are cued to come out after seventeen years. They think 0:07:54.760 --> 0:07:57.680 it's weather related, but still it's a bit of a mystery. 0:07:57.720 --> 0:08:01.240 But it turns out that there are some cicadas that 0:08:01.360 --> 0:08:03.680 don't get the cue and they crawl out like a 0:08:03.760 --> 0:08:06.760 year later, and there's like that lone cicada just you know, 0:08:06.880 --> 0:08:10.320 that lonely little chirping. Yeah, we know, all right. There's 0:08:10.320 --> 0:08:13.280 something like sadly poetic about like the one hippie cicada 0:08:13.320 --> 0:08:16.880 showing up a would stock the year after, yes, yes, 0:08:17.600 --> 0:08:22.480 saying hello, any ladies out there, and literally it's crickets. 0:08:24.880 --> 0:08:28.080 So um. Mainly it is the males, of course making 0:08:28.120 --> 0:08:31.080 the sound. It's worth noting that females can it can 0:08:31.120 --> 0:08:33.920 also make sounds as well, though it's not the signature 0:08:33.960 --> 0:08:35.840 sound that we've heard, and they often all make a 0:08:35.920 --> 0:08:39.000 slightly different sound when they're warning you, hey, don't pick 0:08:39.080 --> 0:08:42.160 me up, um, don't stick me in your pocket. That's 0:08:42.280 --> 0:08:46.400 a different sound as well. Yeah. David Rothenberg, he is 0:08:46.400 --> 0:08:50.480 an interspecies musician. He actually talks about this about the 0:08:50.760 --> 0:08:53.839 very specific noises that they make, the song that they make, 0:08:53.880 --> 0:08:56.800 and he says that whenever you hear a summer convergence 0:08:56.840 --> 0:09:01.000 of Scatta's, you're really hearing nine separate sounds made by 0:09:01.080 --> 0:09:04.959 three related species and they're all there at the same time. 0:09:05.280 --> 0:09:08.840 And so you've got something called the magic Cicada cass 0:09:08.920 --> 0:09:13.280 and i and that makes that swump swelling sound that 0:09:13.320 --> 0:09:15.360 you kind of hear, and to me, that's the most 0:09:15.679 --> 0:09:19.440 prominent sound um that you just hear that swell and 0:09:19.440 --> 0:09:21.520 it just sounds like something is about to burst. And 0:09:21.559 --> 0:09:25.680 then there's the Magicada semendicular and that's another species that 0:09:25.720 --> 0:09:28.440 makes more of a percussive sound. And then the third 0:09:28.440 --> 0:09:32.880 species is magic Cicada sept in sennial and this sounds 0:09:32.960 --> 0:09:38.520 like Pharaoh like saying it's like fair, fair crow. And uh, 0:09:38.600 --> 0:09:42.160 it's really cool because this is a three part process, 0:09:42.360 --> 0:09:46.040 this mating call. That first sound, that that squoshing sound, 0:09:46.120 --> 0:09:49.240 and this this whole process is just sort of attracting 0:09:49.240 --> 0:09:51.920 the ladies and saying I'm right here, and the closer 0:09:51.960 --> 0:09:56.160 they get together, the more the sounds change. And the 0:09:56.240 --> 0:10:00.000 cool thing is that in these pauses between these sounds, 0:10:00.280 --> 0:10:03.440 the female just flicks her wing as a way to 0:10:03.440 --> 0:10:06.280 say here I am. Yeah, so that's kind of her 0:10:06.440 --> 0:10:09.559 call in response. Of course, how how is this signature 0:10:09.559 --> 0:10:12.400 male sound made? Um, the female sound that you mentioned, 0:10:12.400 --> 0:10:14.280 that's just made by flicking their wings together. But the 0:10:14.320 --> 0:10:17.160 males use a membrane and we call this membrane the 0:10:17.240 --> 0:10:19.960 timble and really the best way and it's it's like 0:10:20.000 --> 0:10:23.480 an on their abdomen. And in terms of describing what 0:10:23.559 --> 0:10:26.800 the material looks like and how it generates the sound, 0:10:27.160 --> 0:10:30.400 the best real world uh, well not real world, but 0:10:30.480 --> 0:10:34.240 let's say artificial human world. Um uh. Analog that we 0:10:34.320 --> 0:10:36.760 have is the bindy straw, you know, the bindy part 0:10:36.760 --> 0:10:40.920 of the bindy straw, and it makes that signature noise 0:10:42.120 --> 0:10:45.120 that is essentially what's going on, right, because the abdomen 0:10:45.240 --> 0:10:48.079 is more like that accordion part that's air filled this 0:10:48.200 --> 0:10:51.400 air filled sack, and then the tembles aren't either side, 0:10:51.760 --> 0:10:54.400 and then you have these series of three to five 0:10:54.480 --> 0:10:57.800 kings that excite a residence in the abdomen and that's 0:10:58.000 --> 0:11:02.160 radiated as sound through the insects ear drums. This is 0:11:02.200 --> 0:11:05.480 so cool that's located at the bottom of the abdomen. 0:11:05.559 --> 0:11:07.439 The insects ear drums are at the bottom of the 0:11:07.480 --> 0:11:11.120 abdomen um, so that creates this huge sound pressure that 0:11:11.160 --> 0:11:13.200 acts as a sound converter, and then you have a 0:11:13.280 --> 0:11:16.760 sound that is one hundred and eight decibels loud at 0:11:16.800 --> 0:11:19.600 a one meter range. So just to give you guys 0:11:19.640 --> 0:11:23.080 a little context up there, um, an alarm clock is 0:11:23.160 --> 0:11:26.679 eighty decibles, a rock concert is a hundred and ten decibles, 0:11:26.760 --> 0:11:29.920 in a thundercloup is a hundred and twenty decibles. It's 0:11:29.960 --> 0:11:32.880 interesting that too, that the the cicadas actually tuned down 0:11:32.920 --> 0:11:35.880 their own hearing via muscles to ensure that they're not 0:11:35.960 --> 0:11:39.320 deafened by their own noises. Right. It's it's so if 0:11:39.320 --> 0:11:41.040 you ever think what these guys are loud, that they 0:11:41.040 --> 0:11:43.080 know it too, that's why they're having to tune down 0:11:43.640 --> 0:11:48.200 to sing these songs. Um. So this year's World Science Festival, 0:11:48.200 --> 0:11:51.760 they had a presentation titled the Cicada Serenades, Music, Mating 0:11:51.760 --> 0:11:54.400 and Meaning and it was really good stuff. Um. It 0:11:54.440 --> 0:11:56.240 was quite an adventure to get there because we had 0:11:56.280 --> 0:11:59.480 to go all the way from Manhattan to to the 0:11:59.480 --> 0:12:01.640 Bronx to the Botanical Garden there and we have like 0:12:01.679 --> 0:12:03.520 an hour to do it. And it turns out and 0:12:04.080 --> 0:12:06.480 New Yorkers may laugh at me for even thinking that 0:12:06.480 --> 0:12:08.600 that was a reasonable amount of time to get all 0:12:08.600 --> 0:12:11.680 the way up to the Bronx. Uh, we barely made it. 0:12:12.120 --> 0:12:16.240 But but they they they they presented a really fascinating 0:12:16.559 --> 0:12:20.480 presentation on cicada song and insects song. Rothenburger we mentioned 0:12:20.480 --> 0:12:23.600 was there another individual we're gonna mention in a minute, 0:12:23.600 --> 0:12:26.600 was there as well. One thing that they pointed out 0:12:26.800 --> 0:12:31.760 is that we we don't really understand why some male 0:12:31.800 --> 0:12:34.839 cicadas get lucky and others don't because they're all singing 0:12:34.880 --> 0:12:37.520 this this, this song and uh, a number of you know, 0:12:37.960 --> 0:12:39.960 countless other species out there in the world. We know 0:12:40.000 --> 0:12:42.600 that they're mating. Display is like saying, hey, ladies, this 0:12:42.679 --> 0:12:44.880 is what I have to offer, and the ladies go 0:12:45.600 --> 0:12:48.320 which one has the best mating display, you know, sort 0:12:48.320 --> 0:12:50.719 of like which which guy has the nicest car or 0:12:50.800 --> 0:12:54.040 the coolest house or the most beautiful singing voice. But 0:12:54.040 --> 0:12:56.920 but they don't seem to have any judgment along those lines, 0:12:56.960 --> 0:12:59.320 like all the skata songs are basically the same, so 0:12:59.480 --> 0:13:01.880 it remains a bit of a mystery. Yeah, and there's 0:13:01.920 --> 0:13:06.320 so many of them, yes, um, And so you gotta wonder, 0:13:06.559 --> 0:13:10.880 is this just a matter of proximity, you know, where 0:13:10.840 --> 0:13:12.920 there are that many of them where it's just like, hey, 0:13:12.960 --> 0:13:16.079 we have x amount of days here, it's team on us, 0:13:16.160 --> 0:13:17.760 like ten days. We need to go ahead and do 0:13:17.800 --> 0:13:21.440 that because we're going to be like dust. Pretty well. 0:13:21.440 --> 0:13:24.040 They've been in the ground for a long time. So yeah, 0:13:24.120 --> 0:13:25.880 maybe it's just proximity. And there's so many of them, 0:13:25.880 --> 0:13:28.360 maybe they just realize we've we've got it figured out. 0:13:28.400 --> 0:13:30.720 There's no need to be choosy guys, let's just do it. 0:13:30.840 --> 0:13:34.439 So yeah, I mean, it's let's go back to woodstock. 0:13:34.559 --> 0:13:39.880 It's one big woodstock, like you know, converging right, alright, 0:13:39.920 --> 0:13:41.839 So let's take a quick break and when we get 0:13:41.840 --> 0:13:45.199 back we will cover crickets, of course, but also an 0:13:45.200 --> 0:13:47.960 insect that uses it's en us to make a noise 0:13:48.040 --> 0:14:02.400 of gray labnoses. Alright, so we've talked about Okay, does 0:14:02.400 --> 0:14:05.120 do you anything else to add about the cicada love songs? No, 0:14:05.360 --> 0:14:08.840 just that it's reframed my my idea of what cicadas mean. 0:14:09.000 --> 0:14:12.000 Now I think about tons of love making going on 0:14:12.080 --> 0:14:14.439 when I hear that swell as opposed to deaf and 0:14:14.520 --> 0:14:21.400 decay in the the summer storms coming on. Well, it 0:14:21.440 --> 0:14:23.920 should be obvious cicadas are not the only creatures that 0:14:23.960 --> 0:14:26.800 make make songs. Again, there are a countless varieties of 0:14:26.840 --> 0:14:29.720 insects out there in the night or in even the day, 0:14:29.720 --> 0:14:32.480 even creating all of these sounds. And we're going to 0:14:32.520 --> 0:14:34.840 mention some of the other ones that are worth noting. 0:14:35.200 --> 0:14:37.720 That's right, crickets. Okay, So a lot of people think 0:14:37.760 --> 0:14:41.400 that crickets just rub their legs to make their iconic noise, 0:14:41.600 --> 0:14:45.000 but they do not. Male crickets have a file on 0:14:45.000 --> 0:14:48.640 one wing and a scraper or a plectrum on the 0:14:48.680 --> 0:14:50.960 other wing. They rub the scraper with a file and 0:14:50.960 --> 0:14:54.680 then that makes that chirping noise, which turns out to 0:14:54.720 --> 0:14:57.680 be one hundred dest bulls by the way. Yeah, and 0:14:58.320 --> 0:15:00.640 it's important you have that you mentioned the ridges too, 0:15:00.640 --> 0:15:02.280 because it's not just a matter of like, oh, let's 0:15:02.280 --> 0:15:04.320 say I've got a leg and I've got a wing 0:15:04.440 --> 0:15:06.520 or or another, you know, insects I've got, I've got 0:15:06.560 --> 0:15:08.280 a couple of legs. If you got a couple of wings, 0:15:08.280 --> 0:15:10.000 I should just rub all this stuff together and see 0:15:10.040 --> 0:15:13.520 what happens. Uh No, it's it's much more deliberate than that. 0:15:13.560 --> 0:15:17.000 There is one ridge moves against another ridge, and that 0:15:17.240 --> 0:15:20.040 is uh, that is what creates the noise. Yeah. And uh, 0:15:20.160 --> 0:15:22.520 I did want to point out something called mull crickets 0:15:22.560 --> 0:15:25.440 here because they sort of up the game and they 0:15:25.640 --> 0:15:29.000 use a burrow to act as an acoustic device and 0:15:29.000 --> 0:15:31.920 then radiate sound much like you would with a megaphone. 0:15:32.120 --> 0:15:35.320 So they basically make their own amphitheater for their performance. Yeah. 0:15:35.360 --> 0:15:37.600 And when I say megaphone, that really that's way too 0:15:37.600 --> 0:15:40.680 simple of an explanation because really they're they're acoustic setup 0:15:40.760 --> 0:15:43.800 is far more nuanced and complex than that. Yeah. And 0:15:44.960 --> 0:15:49.960 occasionally you do encounter insects that accidentally benefit from acoustic residents. Um, 0:15:50.280 --> 0:15:52.240 if you have have anyone who's ever had a bug getting 0:15:52.280 --> 0:15:55.280 your ear. I think there's a app Also there's proximity 0:15:55.320 --> 0:15:57.440 to the noise that's going on there as well. But 0:15:58.200 --> 0:16:01.080 there they have their own amphitheater. And uh once I 0:16:01.120 --> 0:16:04.920 had a click bug crawl into a picture frame. So 0:16:05.000 --> 0:16:06.560 it was in there and like just the right spot, 0:16:06.560 --> 0:16:09.240 and it was exceedingly loud. It took me for every 0:16:09.280 --> 0:16:10.480 to figure out what it was. I thought there was 0:16:10.560 --> 0:16:14.760 like somebody in the wall tapping on something click the bug. Yeah, 0:16:14.840 --> 0:16:17.800 like a click click beetle type thing. Okay, pop, you know, 0:16:18.200 --> 0:16:20.080 and if they have something to pop against and then 0:16:20.120 --> 0:16:23.640 if that can resonate, then it becomes this whole different performance. 0:16:24.000 --> 0:16:26.800 It's true, and it is a performance. Uh. For instance, 0:16:26.800 --> 0:16:29.480 grasshoppers like the cricket, they use this what's called stride 0:16:29.720 --> 0:16:34.280 stride eulation that's the scraper, and they used the scraper 0:16:34.360 --> 0:16:37.480 on these little pegs on their hind legs. Yeah, which 0:16:37.520 --> 0:16:40.560 kind of reminded me again of moon shine and making 0:16:40.680 --> 0:16:44.760 music and you know, using a washboard to make some 0:16:44.840 --> 0:16:47.600 sort of sound. Like I am instantly imagining like grasshoppers 0:16:47.640 --> 0:16:51.120 in crickets all setting around playing like string instruments and 0:16:51.200 --> 0:16:53.960 playing the jug maybe and drinking menshine to the point 0:16:54.000 --> 0:16:57.040 where I must have seen that somewhere. Maybe that exists, 0:16:57.160 --> 0:17:00.800 probably in a Pixar movie or it should be. But 0:17:01.440 --> 0:17:03.320 to your point, a lot of people don't realize that 0:17:03.560 --> 0:17:07.360 crickets and grasshoppers are making their their sounds via completely 0:17:07.400 --> 0:17:11.000 different methods. Yeah, and and speaking of completely different methods, 0:17:11.440 --> 0:17:13.560 what if this guy showed up to the cricket and 0:17:13.560 --> 0:17:18.680 grasshopper party. Um, this is called the micronecta Scholtzi, also 0:17:18.840 --> 0:17:22.640 known as the singing penis. It is a freshwater insect 0:17:22.880 --> 0:17:26.359 and it measures just two millimeters across. It's common across Europe, 0:17:26.400 --> 0:17:29.000 so maybe some of our European listeners will will know 0:17:29.040 --> 0:17:31.240 about the singing penis. And now this is not a 0:17:31.280 --> 0:17:34.479 singing penis in the in line with Steve Martin sketch 0:17:34.720 --> 0:17:37.080 if you remember this, uh, I think it was a 0:17:37.119 --> 0:17:39.920 Saturday Night live bit that he did. I don't know. 0:17:40.160 --> 0:17:41.960 He would he would end sip his pants and there's 0:17:41.960 --> 0:17:44.240 a microphone and it's like singing, and then he would 0:17:44.359 --> 0:17:46.720 actually he would smoke a cigarette with it as well. 0:17:46.760 --> 0:17:48.840 That was part of the act. Was it kind of 0:17:48.840 --> 0:17:51.479 like a ventriloquist act? Yeah, it was kind of supposed 0:17:51.480 --> 0:17:54.800 to be like that, like like he was very um, dignified. 0:17:54.840 --> 0:17:56.960 It was very much in the style of let's say, 0:17:56.960 --> 0:17:59.639 the fartist that we've talked about before, you know, Um, 0:17:59.680 --> 0:18:01.679 but I'm pretty sure was Saturday Nightlife Skin. I'm sure 0:18:01.680 --> 0:18:04.600 it's on YouTube somewhere. Um, but but that is not 0:18:04.640 --> 0:18:08.119 what's happening here. With the penis. We're seeing another example 0:18:08.400 --> 0:18:11.080 of this stridulation that we've been talking about again. It's 0:18:11.080 --> 0:18:14.240 one it's one part of the body rubbing against the other. Um. 0:18:14.240 --> 0:18:16.000 I mean really, when you hear all that noise in 0:18:16.040 --> 0:18:18.720 the in the the insects song in the forest, you're 0:18:18.760 --> 0:18:21.320 just hearing a great rubbing of parts, It's true. And 0:18:21.320 --> 0:18:23.320 in this part is it is the penis part, and 0:18:23.480 --> 0:18:26.879 it's a ridge on our penis, which then is rubbed 0:18:26.880 --> 0:18:30.359 against a ridge on the surface of their abdomen. And 0:18:30.400 --> 0:18:35.320 this is so trippy. The surface area is roughly the 0:18:35.359 --> 0:18:39.240 width of a human hair, and it is producing a 0:18:39.280 --> 0:18:43.680 noise of like two decibels. This is incredibly loud. I mean, 0:18:43.680 --> 0:18:45.879 this is like the equivalent of listening to a loud 0:18:46.000 --> 0:18:48.080 orchestra play if you're in the front row. Yeah, like 0:18:48.080 --> 0:18:50.960 just a freight train barreling by now Luckily, these guys 0:18:50.960 --> 0:18:56.600 live in the water, so of the sound is muffled 0:18:56.840 --> 0:18:59.080 by their by their natural habitat, but you can but 0:18:59.080 --> 0:19:01.399 they're still pretty loud out if you're walking by and 0:19:01.440 --> 0:19:03.119 they're they're in the water. And these guys are pretty 0:19:03.119 --> 0:19:06.560 common throughout Europe, I believe. Yeah, yeah they are. And 0:19:06.760 --> 0:19:10.000 uh so that of course leads us to a really 0:19:10.400 --> 0:19:14.240 wily insect, and this is the tiger mom Yeah. These 0:19:14.280 --> 0:19:16.679 other insects we've been talking about, they're largely talking to 0:19:16.720 --> 0:19:19.280 each other. It's largely a matter of mating or occasionally, 0:19:19.320 --> 0:19:21.600 as with this Kida's saying, get your hands off of 0:19:21.600 --> 0:19:22.800 me and put me back in that tree so I 0:19:22.840 --> 0:19:26.040 can do it. Um. But in this case, the tiger 0:19:26.080 --> 0:19:28.240 moth is doing doing something a lot more subtle and 0:19:28.240 --> 0:19:31.280 a lot more fascinating. Yeah, I mean, because it's talking 0:19:31.320 --> 0:19:37.320 to another species. Uh specifically it's predator, a bat, and 0:19:37.480 --> 0:19:42.040 it is making its little song. They think, our researchers think, uh, 0:19:42.359 --> 0:19:45.080 it could be one of three theories. One is that 0:19:45.160 --> 0:19:48.320 it's saying, hey, guess what, I'm poisonous. You probably don't 0:19:48.320 --> 0:19:50.159 know this at night because you can't see any but 0:19:50.240 --> 0:19:52.920 other people these daytime people they know that this these 0:19:52.960 --> 0:19:56.080 markings on my wings, they indicate that I'm poisonous. But 0:19:56.280 --> 0:19:58.760 since it's evening and you can't see this glorious pattern 0:19:58.800 --> 0:20:00.679 on my wings, I'm just gonna tell you. So they 0:20:00.680 --> 0:20:04.119 think that that could be one reason, uh for the 0:20:04.480 --> 0:20:07.800 noise it makes. The second theory is that it's could 0:20:07.880 --> 0:20:12.160 be jamming the bats sonar m. And then the third 0:20:12.240 --> 0:20:15.879 theory is that it's kind of saying boo to the 0:20:15.880 --> 0:20:19.320 bat um and in a sort of acoustic warning system, 0:20:20.200 --> 0:20:22.359 I know you're here. Yeah, Like you know, the bat's 0:20:22.440 --> 0:20:24.600 kind of honing in, hunting in and then or homing 0:20:24.640 --> 0:20:27.639 in and it says, oh, hey, I'm here, and then 0:20:27.680 --> 0:20:29.560 the bat kind of gets freaked out. And this is 0:20:29.600 --> 0:20:32.480 called a startle response. And this is something that Ron 0:20:32.560 --> 0:20:36.000 Hoy talks about um in some of his papers. He 0:20:36.119 --> 0:20:38.040 was on the panels NY. He was on the panel. 0:20:38.080 --> 0:20:40.480 He was great because he brought a number of acoustic 0:20:40.480 --> 0:20:43.800 instruments with him, because I mean you also had David Rothenberg, 0:20:43.840 --> 0:20:47.440 who again he is amazing. He's a philosopher, a musician 0:20:47.440 --> 0:20:50.399 and author um in New Jersey, I believe, and he 0:20:50.560 --> 0:20:53.960 um he's all about like taking natural sounds in the 0:20:53.960 --> 0:20:56.600 world things, sounds of insects, the sounds of whales, and 0:20:56.640 --> 0:20:58.880 the doing of his own stuff. So he actually had 0:20:59.440 --> 0:21:01.760 a container or of cicadas. He has taken him out, 0:21:02.240 --> 0:21:04.439 sticking him on the microphone, and then he's playing like 0:21:04.600 --> 0:21:07.640 an alto sacks. And then he had this fabulous percussionists 0:21:07.640 --> 0:21:11.840 there that was doing kind of um my, my musical 0:21:11.840 --> 0:21:15.320