#stridulate

I take a lot of enjoyment and pride out of being able to properly identify an insect, but it really only takes some observation and the correct guide material. It would be much more rewarding (read as impressive for those who know me) to be able to listen to stridulation, tympanic singing, and buzzing and identify that insect purely by sound. 

I'm far from that, so here is a field recording of some unknown insects chirping away in the tall grass next to the stream that runs in front of my fathers house.

stridulate (STRIJ-uh-layt)--verb: to make a shrill creaking noise by rubbing together special bodily structures -- used especially of male insects (as crickets or grasshoppers)     

Example: "Water rushes and warbles over rocks, around our island in the middle of the stream. Insects stridulate in a hum almost electric." -- From an article by Ezra Kyrill Erker in the Bangkok Post, August 14, 2011     

DID YOU KNOW?  "Stridulate" is one member of a word family that has its ancestry in the Latin word "stridulus," meaning "shrill." Also in this family is "stridulation," a noun that can either refer to the shrill sound made when an insect stridulates or can simply mean "the act of stridulating." Another "stridulus" word is "stridulatory," meaning "able to stridulate" or "used in stridulation." There's also "stridulous," meaning "making a shrill creaking sound." "Stridulus" itself comes from "stridere," which is the direct source of the last word we'll mention here. "Stridor" means "a harsh, shrill, or creaking noise" and also "a harsh vibrating sound heard during respiration in cases of obstruction of the air passages."