It's fall and the cool, crisp air is filled the mating sounds of moose, deer, seals, bison, and closer to home-crickets and grasshoppers. That incessant whirring and chirping you hear at night are tiny orthopterans singing for a mate: the musical, thrill-like sounds are crickets; and the pitchless, mechanical sounds are grasshoppers. Neither of these animals have vocal chords; instead they rub body parts together, either a wing against another wing or a leg against a wing. Each species has a distinct song and some sing at night while others sing during the day.

Notes: The term for producing sound by rubbing body parts in this way is stridulation. Orthopteran means "straight winged".

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Sounds:
(RealAudio)

Crickets
(Carolina ground cricket)

Grasshopper
(True katydid)

Sounds © copyright Wil Hershberger and Steve Rannels