Mate Attraction
There are many different ways that insects find a mate and they range from the visual to the chemical, with one of the most interesting ways of mate finding being through the use sound (Gullan & Cranston, pp. 123, 2010). The transmission of generated sound waves over large distances is quite a feat, especially considering insect’s small size and yet Crickets and Cicadas have adapted different ways to transmit these sound signals to attract mates and deter potential mate (Adamo & Hoy, 1995). In some cases these highly species-specific calls even allow individuals to identify the difference between parasites that mimic mating calls and healthy mates (Beckers & Wagner Jr., 2012).
While all species of cricket and cicada have these mating calls, the calls themselves are very species specific and the songs that they produce are generally homoplasious (have undergone convergent evolution), interestingly distantly related taxa seem to have closer related song structure than closely related taxa (Gullan & Cranston, pp. 123, 99-101, 2010). This seems to indicate that the morphological features that allow the songs to be generated and the nervous system that controls the specific song structure may have evolved separately, with the morphology being conserved and the nervous system control being plastic and reliant on species-specific selection (Fonseca et.al, 2008)
It is also interesting that for both the crickets and the cicadas it is only the male that chirps, the female in both species is silent and merely reacts to the males call (Gullan & Cranston, pp. 99-101, 2010)
While all species of cricket and cicada have these mating calls, the calls themselves are very species specific and the songs that they produce are generally homoplasious (have undergone convergent evolution), interestingly distantly related taxa seem to have closer related song structure than closely related taxa (Gullan & Cranston, pp. 123, 99-101, 2010). This seems to indicate that the morphological features that allow the songs to be generated and the nervous system that controls the specific song structure may have evolved separately, with the morphology being conserved and the nervous system control being plastic and reliant on species-specific selection (Fonseca et.al, 2008)
It is also interesting that for both the crickets and the cicadas it is only the male that chirps, the female in both species is silent and merely reacts to the males call (Gullan & Cranston, pp. 99-101, 2010)