Teresa Schlumpberger
F.O.R. San Bernard
Vice President
Original O.C. Member

Memorial Day weekend heralds in the summer and Teresa shares her thoughts with us.......
 

The Sounds Of Summer

I took a picture last weekend and it made me think of the sounds of summer...so I've spent the weekend listening.
 

I've heard the boats and jet-skis.
The neighbors having their outdoor BBQ with family.
The laughter of children.
Music. (sometimes loud)
Ice-cream truck.
Birds.
Bees.
Squirrels.
Dogs barking.
Lawnmowers.
Motorcycles.
Fish.
Frogs.

But the one underlying sound is the Cicada. It's always there....morning, noon, and night. And it's always been there-every summer of my life. It is the sound of summer...the "lovely sound of the cicada".

Cicadas are insects distinguished by their loud chirping, large wide eyes, and transparent veined wings. Cicadas spend most of their lives underground as nymphs, and only surface periodically to mate and then die.

There are about 2,500 species of cicada around the globe, none of which are known to be dangerous to humans. In many cultures cicadas are considered a delicious snack !

Cicadas live in temperate to tropical climates where they are among the most widely recognized of all insects, mainly due to their large size and remarkable acoustical talents. Cicadas are sometimes called "locusts".

Only males produce the cicadas' distinctive sound. Different species have different mating songs to ensure they attract the appropriate mate. Male cicadas have loud noisemakers called "timbals" on the sides of the abdominal base. Their "singing" is not the stridulation (where two structures are rubbed against one another) of many other familiar sound-producing insects such as crickets.

The cicada's timbals are regions of the exoskeleton that are modified to form a complex membrane with thin, membranous portions and thickened "ribs". Contracting the internal timbal muscles produces a clicking sound as the timbals buckle inwards. As these muscles relax, the timbals return to their original position producing another click.

The interior of the male abdomen is substantially hollow to amplify the resonance of the sound. A cicada rapidly vibrates these membranes, and enlarged chambers in the tracheae make its body serve as a resonance chamber, greatly amplifying the sound. They can change their noise by wiggling their abdomens toward and away from the tree that they are on. Additionally, each species has its own distinctive song.

In addition to the mating song, many species also have a distinct distress call, usually a somewhat broken and erratic sound emitted when an individual is seized. A number of species also have a courtship song, which is often a quieter call and is produced after a female has been drawn by the calling song.
 

"The collision of hail or rain with hard surfaces, or the song of cicadas in a summer field. These sonic events are made out of thousands of isolated sounds; this multitude of sounds, seen as totality, is a new sonic event.”

Iannis Xenakis 

 

Photo and Post: Teresa Schlumpberger
Cicada research: CS Webb
Sources: Wikipedia, championsofsound.blogspot, mahalo/cicadas,Thinkexist.com

One of F.O.R.'s primary functions is to educate the public regarding the issues concerning the San Bernard River and it's Communities. Contact Pat Webb pat@sanbernardriver.com to schedule a guest speaker for your group or special event.