Cicadas are loud!
Cicadas are a type of bug that live almost their whole life under the ground, they grow underground and after 17 years they come out and produce a very loud mating call that reaches up to 100 decibels, they mate and then they die leaving cicada larvae underground, who wait for 17 more years until they come out again and the cycle restarts.
The US navy has been investigating the sounds that Cicadas make to find out how they can use the way in which the cicadas make this high sound in their own advantage.
The cicadas make that sound with a very small part of their throat, so the navy wants to find out how they can created so much noise with a very small device to use it for their own advantage
It is still not fully understood how cicada make that noise but it is also thought they make it with air sacks they blow.
It is important to find out how different animals do things because this way we can apply it to our own lives and technology, and that way advance more as
humans. We might find very helpful things in finding examples from what nature shows us.
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Camila Merino that is a cool article! Circadas were actually one of the only "bugs" that I liked as a kid because my dad lied to me and told me they were birds. Aha.
ReplyDeleteThey actually do make a really distinct and cool sound though. Here's a clip;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mah26og11ms
Generally in MN you can't hear them as often, but in China they're everywhere.
I didn't know that cicada existed in china. What a fascinating fact!
ReplyDeleteI also found it fascinated that cicada make loud calls and burrow underground for 17 years. Here is yet another clip of a cicada call video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mah26og11ms