Highest-ever calling songs recorded

Researchers in the Centre for Ultrasonic Engineering have discovered a new genus and three new species of insect with the highest ultrasonic calling songs ever recorded in the animal kingdom.

The research

Katydids, or bushcrickets, are insects known for their acoustic communication, with the male producing sound by rubbing its wings together to attract distant females for mating.

Scientists from Strathclyde located a new genus with three new species of katydid in the rainforests of Colombia and Ecuador. These insects were found to produce the highest ultrasonic calling songs known in nature, with males reaching 150 kHz.

Using state-of-the-art technologies, the insects were found to create a ‘closed box’ with its right wing to radiate sound. This is the same method used by human-made loud speakers and due to the insects’ ability to reduce wind size, they can avoid predators such as bats.

Dr James Windmill, from Strathclyde's Centre of Ultrasonic Engineering, said:

These insects can produce, and hear, loud ultrasonic calls in air. Understanding how nature’s systems do this can give us inspiration for our engineered ultrasonics.

Practical application

Dr Windmill has been awarded a Consolidator Grant by the European Research Council to carry out further research into biologically inspired acoustic transducers.

The €2 million-award will allow the Centre for Ultrasonic Engineering to use new measure equipment to investigate the novel properties of insect hearing systems.

Dr Windmill added:

Acoustic sensors such as the miniature microphones found in mobile phones, tablets and laptops, are a multi-billion pound international business area. This new funding gives researchers at Strathclyde the opportunity to work at the cutting edge of research into such devices, combining investigations of insect hearing systems with novel manufacturing techniques.