What sings with its wings?

To water it mostly clings.

All the summer long,

The chirping goes on.

And the song goes on. But the cricket does not even open its mouth to chirp. Strange huh! It raises its stiff leathery front wing and rubs one over the other to make its high creaking sound. Considering that cricket is a tiny fellow, the sound that it makes is very loud. The size of crickets varies from the size of your thumbnail to that of a teaspoon.

Did you know that only father crickets can make music.? Can you guess why? Only father crickets have the music making wings; mothers have very soft wings. Hence, they don’t make any sound when they rub. The back wings get used by both for flying. Though crickets can fly but not very high. Mostly they travel by jumping and hopping.

Crickets can be found all over the world. They can survive almost anywhere like people’s houses, logs and leaves, loose stones, rocky areas and caves. While black cricket is more common than the others, you can also find them in many colors like green, brown and straw colored.

Since cricket is an insect, it has six legs. On its feet, there are tiny claws that help it run along upside down on a tree. Hmm, it has its ears in its knees. Surprised! They are located at the joints of its legs. If you were a cricket, you would be able to hear whats happening on the ground loud and clear :)

Listen to their song –

A lot many times songs of the cricket are used to determine how warm the weather is. The warmer the weather the faster they sing, or flap their wings to keep themselves cooler. These wonderful singers have a very short lifespan of an year.

You would never be able to judge the location of a cricket from its song. When crickets chirp their song seems to come from somewhere else, so you can’t always find the cricket, even when you hear it chirping..

People in Asia eat them as a delicacy. Some people keep them as pets also as they believe that they bring good luck, but some love to hear their songs.

Enjoy this clip showing how crickets are supposed to be lucky,  from a famous movie Mulan –