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Stridulation is the act of producing sound
Sound

Sound is vibration transmitted through a solid, liquid, or gas, composed of frequencies within the range of hearing and of a threshold of hearing to be heard, or the sensation stimulated in organs of hearing by such vibrations....
 by rubbing together certain body parts. This behavior is mostly associated with insect
Insect

Insects are the biggest class of arthropods and the only ones with wings. They are the most diverse group of animals on the planet. They are most diverse at the equator and their diversity declines toward the poles....
s, but other animals are known to do this as well, such as a number of species of snake
Snake

Snakes are elongate legless carnivore reptiles of the suborder Serpentes that can be distinguished from legless lizards by their lack of eyelids and external ears....
s and spider
Spider

Spiders are air-breathing chelicerate arthropods that have eight legs, and chelicerae modified into fangs that inject venom. In their bodies the usual arthropod segments are fused into two Tagma , the cephalothorax and abdomen, joined by a small, cylindrical pedicel....
s. A dedicated stridulation apparatus has also been discovered in males of one (as of April, 2007) bird
Bird

Birds are wing, Bipedalismal, endothermic , vertebrate animals that lay egg . There are around 10,000 living species, making them the most numerous tetrapod vertebrates....
 species
Species

In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring....
, the Club-winged Manakin
Club-winged Manakin

The Club-winged Manakin is a small passerine bird which is a resident breeding species in the cloud forest on the western slopes of the Andes Mountains of Colombia and northwestern Ecuador....
. Common onomatopoeic words for the sounds produced by stridulation include chirp and chirrup.

Insect stridulation
Insect
Insect

Insects are the biggest class of arthropods and the only ones with wings. They are the most diverse group of animals on the planet. They are most diverse at the equator and their diversity declines toward the poles....
s and other arthropod
Arthropod

Arthropods are animals belonging to the Scientific classification Arthropoda , and include the insects, arachnids, crustaceans, and others....
s stridulate by rubbing together two parts of the body
Body

With regard to organism, a body is the integral physical material of an individual. "Body" often is used in connection with appearance, health issues and death....
.






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Stridulation is the act of producing sound
Sound

Sound is vibration transmitted through a solid, liquid, or gas, composed of frequencies within the range of hearing and of a threshold of hearing to be heard, or the sensation stimulated in organs of hearing by such vibrations....
 by rubbing together certain body parts. This behavior is mostly associated with insect
Insect

Insects are the biggest class of arthropods and the only ones with wings. They are the most diverse group of animals on the planet. They are most diverse at the equator and their diversity declines toward the poles....
s, but other animals are known to do this as well, such as a number of species of snake
Snake

Snakes are elongate legless carnivore reptiles of the suborder Serpentes that can be distinguished from legless lizards by their lack of eyelids and external ears....
s and spider
Spider

Spiders are air-breathing chelicerate arthropods that have eight legs, and chelicerae modified into fangs that inject venom. In their bodies the usual arthropod segments are fused into two Tagma , the cephalothorax and abdomen, joined by a small, cylindrical pedicel....
s. A dedicated stridulation apparatus has also been discovered in males of one (as of April, 2007) bird
Bird

Birds are wing, Bipedalismal, endothermic , vertebrate animals that lay egg . There are around 10,000 living species, making them the most numerous tetrapod vertebrates....
 species
Species

In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring....
, the Club-winged Manakin
Club-winged Manakin

The Club-winged Manakin is a small passerine bird which is a resident breeding species in the cloud forest on the western slopes of the Andes Mountains of Colombia and northwestern Ecuador....
. Common onomatopoeic words for the sounds produced by stridulation include chirp and chirrup.

Insect stridulation


Insect
Insect

Insects are the biggest class of arthropods and the only ones with wings. They are the most diverse group of animals on the planet. They are most diverse at the equator and their diversity declines toward the poles....
s and other arthropod
Arthropod

Arthropods are animals belonging to the Scientific classification Arthropoda , and include the insects, arachnids, crustaceans, and others....
s stridulate by rubbing together two parts of the body
Body

With regard to organism, a body is the integral physical material of an individual. "Body" often is used in connection with appearance, health issues and death....
. These are referred to generically as the stridulatory organs, though in many groups the entire structure is called a stridulitrum. The mechanism is best known in cricket
Cricket (insect)

Crickets, family Gryllidae , are insects somewhat related to grasshoppers and more closely related to Tettigoniidae . They have somewhat flattened bodies and long antenna ....
s and grasshopper
Grasshopper

Grasshoppers are insects of the suborder Caelifera in the order Orthoptera. To distinguish them from Tettigoniidae, they are sometimes referred to as short-horned grasshoppers....
s, but other insects which stridulate include Scolytinae (bark beetles), Cerambycidae (longhorned beetles), Cicadidae (cicadas), Mutillidae
Mutillidae

Mutillidae, or velvet ants, are a family of wasps whose wingless females resemble ants, though only distantly related. The "velvet ant" name refers to their hair, which may be red, black, white, silvery or golden....
 ("velvet ants"), Reduviidae
Reduviidae

Reduviidae is a large, Cosmopolitan distribution family of predatory insects in the suborder Heteroptera. It includes assassin bugs , wheel bugs , and thread-legged bugs ....
 ("assassin bugs"), Glaresidae ("enigmatic scarabs"), the Black imported fire ant
Black imported fire ant

Long thought to either be a Subspecies or color variation of red imported fire ant, the black imported fire ant is now recognized as its own species with a demonstratively different range and living habits....
 (Solenopsis richteri), larva
Larva

A larva is a young form of animal with indirect developmental biology, going through or undergoing metamorphosis .The larva can look completely different from the adult form, for example, a caterpillar differs from a butterfly....
l Lucanidae
Stag beetle

Stag beetles are a group of about 1,200 species of beetle in the family Lucanidae, presently classified in four subfamilies Some species grow to 8 centimetre , but most are about 5 cm ....
 (stag beetles), Passalidae (Bessbugs), Geotrupidae (earth-boring dung beetles) and some species of Agromyzidae
Agromyzidae

The family Agromyzidae is commonly referred to as the leaf-miner flies, for the feeding habit of larvae, some of which are leaf miners on various plants....
 (leaf-mining flies). Stridulation is also known in some species of millipede
Millipede

Millipedes are arthropods that have two pairs of arthropod leg per segment . Each segment that has two pairs of legs is a result of two single segments fused together as one....
 (class Diplopoda).

The mechanism is typically that of one structure with a well-defined lip or ridge (the "scraper") being moved across a finely-ridged surface (the "file"), and vibrating as it does so, like the dragging of a phonograph
Phonograph

The record player, phonograph or gramophone was the most common device for playing Sound recording and reproduction sound from the 1870s through the 1980s....
 needle across a vinyl record
LP album

Long play record albums are 33? rpm Polyvinyl chloride Gramophone records , generally either 10 or 12 inches in diameter. They were first introduced in 1948, and served as a primary release format for Sound recording and reproduction until the compact disc began to significantly displace them by 1988, and eventually leaving the mainstr...
.

Stridulation in several of these examples is for attracting a mate, or as a form of territorial behaviour, but can also be a warning signal (acoustic aposematism
Aposematism

Aposematism , perhaps most commonly known in the context of warning colouration, describes a family of antipredator adaptations where a warning signal is associated with the unprofitability of a prey item to potential predation....
, as in velvet ants). This kind of communication was first described by Slovenian biologist Ivan Regen
Ivan Regen

Ivan Regen was a Slovenes biologist, best known for his studies in the field of bioacoustics.Regen was born in the village of Laj?e, Gorenja vas - Poljane and became interested in insect sounds as a child....
 (1868-1947).

Snake stridulation

A number of species
Species

In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring....
 of venomous snake
Venomous snake

A venomous snake is a snake that uses modified saliva, snake venom, usually delivered through highly specialized teeth such as hollow fangs, for the purpose of prey immobilization and self-defense....
s are known to stridulate as part of a threat display. They arrange their body into a series of parallel C-shaped (counterlooped) coils that they rub together to produce a sizzling sound, rather like water on a hot plate. The most well known examples are members of the genus
Genus

A genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the classification of living and fossil organisms. The taxonomic ranks are domain , kingdom , phylum, class , order , family , genus, and species....
 Echis
Echis

Echis is a genus of venomous snake Viperinaes found in the dry regions of Africa, the Middle East, Pakistan, India and Sri Lanka. These snakes are quick-tempered and strike readily, which, combined with a virulent hemotoxin venom, makes them very dangerous, despite their small size....
 (saw-scales vipers), although those of the genus Cerastes
Cerastes (genus)

Cerastes is a genus of small, venomous snake Viperinaes found in the deserts and semi-deserts of northern North Africa eastward through Arabian Peninsula and Iran....
 (North African desert vipers) and at least one bush viper species, Atheris desaixi
Atheris desaixi

Atheris desaixi is a venomous snake Viperinae species endemic to Kenya, where only two isolated populations are known. It is known for its striking black and yellow coloration....
, are known to do this as well.

Spider stridulation

Most spiders are silent, but some tarantula
Tarantula

Media:nxdmfgnalTarantula are a group of hairy and often very large spiders belonging to the family Theraphosidae, of which approximately 900 species have been identified....
 species are known to stridulate. When disturbed, Theraphosa blondi, the Goliath tarantula, can produce a rather loud hissing noise by rubbing together the bristles on its legs. This is said to be audible to a distance of up to 15 feet (4.5 m).

One of the Wolf Spider
Wolf spider

Wolf spiders are members of the Family Lycosidae, from the Greek word "?????" meaning "wolf". They are robust and agile hunters, and have good eyesight....
s, Schizocosa stridulans Stratton, produces low-frequency sounds by flexing its abdomen (tremulation) or high-frequency stridulation by using the cymbia on the ends of its pedipalps.

External links

  • by Dr. Eva Sprecher-Uebersax, January 2002.