Specificity in the Response of Female Tree Crickets (Orthoptera, Gryllidae, Oecanthinae) to Calling Songs of the Males1

Abstract

A great many insect species possess specialized sound producing and receiving organs. Among these species are many which produce sounds loud enough to be noticed by man and which produce them continuously for many hours each day during their adult lives. On late summer evenings in many habitats in the eastern United States, there are twenty or more species stridulating at the same time, and the resulting din is astonishing to those unaccustomed to it. In spite of the loudness of the chorus and the fact that many of the chorusers are of economic importance, little is known about the biological significance of sound production in insects.