You might think that you hear more crickets when you're on holiday – but are they really louder then, or is just part of a distant holiday memory? Well, it probably depends on how warm it is, as Sheena Harvey explains.
Do crickets really chirp more in the summer?
The rasping background sound to many warm summer nights is actually the noise of male crickets rubbing the serrated edge in the middle of one leathery forewing against a scraper at the back of the other forewing.
This so-called ‘chirp’ is a call-out to potential mates and a warning to other males that ‘this territory is occupied’. Depending on the species of cricket, the animals begin chirping in spring and tail off around July or commence at the beginning of summer and chirp on into autumn.
The greatest intensity of sound is heard in summer months for two reasons.
Crickets are cold blooded and rely on a higher ambient temperature to enable the muscles that raise and lower their forewings to work faster and more efficiently. That’s why they’re much more obvious in hot weather.
Secondly, this is the optimum time to reproduce, when the soil is warm and plant life abundant. These factors are important because crickets either lay their eggs in the ground or inside a plant stem.
After hatching, the insects only live for two to three months in nymph and adult forms. Eggs laid later in the year overwinter under cover and hatch the following spring to complete the cycle.
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Top image credit: a sickle-bearing bush-cricket. Credit: Getty