stridulation

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"Grasshoppers," it says, "are specially remarkable for their saltatory powers, due to the great development of the hind legs; and also for their stridulation, which is not always an attribute of the male only."

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Definitions (3)

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  1. The act, process, or function of stridulating; the power of so doing, or the thin, harsh, creaking noise thus produced; a shrilling. Stridulation is effected by rubbing together hard or rough parts of the body, often specially modified in various ways or that purpose, being thus not vocalization or phonation. It is highly characteristic of many homopterous insects, as the cicadas; of many orthopterous insects, as various locusts or grasshoppers; and of some coleopterous insects, or beetles. It rarely occurs in lepidopterous insects, but has been observed in some butterflies and moths, and also in a few spiders, as of the genus Theridion. Those homopterous insects in which it is specially marked are named Stridulantia.

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Examples (28)

  • White insects like the ghosts of katydids provided the stridulation, and from time to time a frog would gulp one down and then resume its song with added strength and discordancy. —  FSFDec2003
  • She leaned back­ward, and a satisfied stridulation issued from her thorax THE little worker advanced, picked Atasmas up, and set him gently on its sack. —  Astounding Stories January, 1935
  • So pleasing was the thought, that his wings fluttered slightly, and the room filled with the bright shirrupping sound of his particular stridulation. —  Popular in the last 8 hours
  • Beneath that deeper thunder of the guns, the crackling, unintermittent sound of musketry affected the ear like the stridulation of giant insects. —  The Long Roll
  • "Grasshoppers," it says, "are specially remarkable for their saltatory powers, due to the great development of the hind legs; and also for their stridulation, which is not always an attribute of the male only." —  Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 159, July 21, 1920
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