Stridulation
act of producing sound by rubbing together certain body parts
Stridulation is the act of producing sound by rubbing together certain body parts. This behavior is mostly associated with insects, but other animals are known to do this as well, such as a number of species of fish, snakes and spiders. The mechanism is typically that of one structure with a well-defined lip, ridge, or nodules (the "scraper" or plectrum) being moved across a finely-ridged surface (the "file" or stridulitrum—sometimes called the pars stridens) or vice versa, and vibrating as it does so, like the dragging of a phonograph needle across a vinyl record. Sometimes it is the structure bearing the file which resonates to produce the sound, but in other cases it is the structure bearing the scraper, with both variants possible in related groups. Common onomatopoeic words for the sounds produced by stridulation include chirp and chirrup.
Arthropod stridulation
Insects and other arthropods stridulate by rubbing together two parts of the body. These are referred to generically as the stridulatory organs.
The mechanism is best known in crickets, mole crickets, and grasshoppers, but other insects which stridulate include Curculionidae (weevils and bark beetles), Cerambycidae (longhorned beetles), Mutillidae ("velvet ants"), Reduviidae (assassin bugs), Buprestidae (metallic wood-boring beetles), Hydrophilidae (water scavenger beetles), Cicindelinae (tiger beetles), Scarabaeidae (scarab beetles), Glaresidae ("enigmatic scarabs"), larval Lucanidae (stag beetles), Passalidae (Bessbugs), Geotrupidae (earth-boring dung beetles), Alydidae (broad-headed bugs), Largidae (bordered plant bugs), Miridae (leaf bugs), Corixidae (water boatmen, notably Micronecta scholtzi), various ants (including the Black imported fire ant, Solenopsis richteri), some stick insects such as Pterinoxylus spinulosus, and some species of Agromyzidae (leaf-mining flies). While cicadas are well-known for sound production via abdominal tymbal organs, it has been demonstrated that some species can produce sounds via stridulation, as well.
Stridulation is also known in a few tarantulas (Arachnida), certain centipedes, such as Scutigera coleoptrata, and some pill millipedes (Diplopoda, Oniscomorpha).
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