Stridulation is the act of producing

sound In physics, sound is a vibration that propagates as an acoustic wave, through a transmission medium such as a gas, liquid or solid. In human physiology and psychology, sound is the ''reception'' of such waves and their ''perception'' by ...

by rubbing together certain body parts. This behavior is mostly associated with

insect Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body ( head, thorax and abdomen), three pa ...

s, but other animals are known to do this as well, such as a number of species of

fish Fish are Aquatic animal, aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack Limb (anatomy), limbs with Digit (anatomy), digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and Chondrichthyes, cartilaginous and bony fish as we ...

snake Snakes are elongated, limbless, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes . Like all other squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales. Many species of snakes have skulls with several more ...

s and

spider Spiders (order Araneae) are air-breathing arthropods that have eight legs, chelicerae with fangs generally able to inject venom, and spinnerets that extrude silk. They are the largest order of arachnids and rank seventh in total species ...

s. The mechanism is typically that of one structure with a well-defined lip, ridge, or nodules (the "scraper" or ''plectrum'') being moved across a finely-ridged surface (the "file" or ''stridulitrum''—sometimes called the ''pars stridens'') or vice versa, and vibrating as it does so, like the dragging of a

phonograph A phonograph, in its later forms also called a gramophone (as a trademark since 1887, as a generic name in the UK since 1910) or since the 1940s called a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogu ...

needle across a

vinyl record A phonograph record (also known as a gramophone record, especially in British English), or simply a record, is an analog sound storage medium in the form of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove. The groove usually starts ne ...

. Sometimes it is the structure bearing the file which resonates to produce the sound, but in other cases it is the structure bearing the scraper, with both variants possible in related groups. Common

onomatopoeic Onomatopoeia is the process of creating a word that phonetically imitates, resembles, or suggests the sound that it describes. Such a word itself is also called an onomatopoeia. Common onomatopoeias include animal noises such as ''oink'', ''m ...

words for the sounds produced by stridulation include ''chirp'' and ''chirrup''.

Arthropod stridulation

Insect Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body ( head, thorax and abdomen), three pa ...

s and other

arthropod Arthropods (, (gen. ποδός)) are invertebrate animals with an exoskeleton, a segmented body, and paired jointed appendages. Arthropods form the phylum Arthropoda. They are distinguished by their jointed limbs and cuticle made of chiti ...

s stridulate by rubbing together two parts of the body. These are referred to generically as the ''stridulatory organs''. The mechanism is best known in

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by st ...

s, mole crickets, and

grasshopper Grasshoppers are a group of insects belonging to the suborder Caelifera. They are among what is possibly the most ancient living group of chewing herbivorous insects, dating back to the early Triassic around 250 million years ago. Grasshopp ...

s, but other insects which stridulate include

Curculionidae The Curculionidae are a family of weevils, commonly called snout beetles or true weevils. They are one of the largest animal families, with 6,800 genera and 83,000 species described worldwide. They are the sister group to the family Brentidae. ...

(weevils and bark beetles),

Cerambycidae The longhorn beetles (Cerambycidae), also known as long-horned or longicorns, are a large family of beetles, with over 35,000 species described. Most species are characterized by extremely long antennae, which are often as long as or longer than ...

(longhorned beetles), Mutillidae ("velvet ants"), Reduviidae (assassin bugs),

Buprestidae Buprestidae is a family of beetles known as jewel beetles or metallic wood-boring beetles because of their glossy iridescent colors. Larvae of this family are known as flatheaded borers. The family is among the largest of the beetles, with some ...

(metallic wood-boring beetles), Hydrophilidae (water scavenger beetles), Cicindelinae (tiger beetles),

Scarabaeidae The family Scarabaeidae, as currently defined, consists of over 30,000 species of beetles worldwide; they are often called scarabs or scarab beetles. The classification of this family has undergone significant change in recent years. Several sub ...

(scarab beetles), Glaresidae ("enigmatic scarabs"),

larva A larva (; plural larvae ) is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle. ...

l Lucanidae (stag beetles),

Passalidae Passalidae is a family of beetles known variously as "bessbugs", "bess beetles", "betsy beetles" or "horned passalus beetles". Nearly all of the 500-odd species are tropical; species found in North America are notable for their size, ranging from ...

(Bessbugs), Geotrupidae (earth-boring dung beetles),

Alydidae Alydidae, commonly known as broad-headed bugs, is a family of true bugs very similar to the closely related Coreidae (leaf-footed bugs and relatives). There are at least 60 genera and 300 species altogether. Distributed in the temperate and war ...

(broad-headed bugs), Largidae (bordered plant bugs), Miridae (leaf bugs),

Corixidae Corixidae is a family of aquatic insects in the order Hemiptera. They are found worldwide in virtually any freshwater habitat and a few species live in saline water. There are about 500 known species worldwide, in 55 genera, including the genus ' ...

(water boatmen, notably '' Micronecta scholtzi''), various ants (including the Black imported fire ant, ''

Solenopsis richteri The black imported fire ant (''Solenopsis richteri''), or simply BIFA, is a species of ant in the genus '' Solenopsis'' (fire ants). It was long thought to either be a subspecies or a color variation of ''Solenopsis invicta'' (the red imported fi ...

''), some

stick insects The Phasmatodea (also known as Phasmida, Phasmatoptera or Spectra) are an order of insects whose members are variously known as stick insects, stick-bugs, walking sticks, stick animals, or bug sticks. They are also occasionally referred to as ...

such as '' Pterinoxylus spinulosus'', and some species of

Agromyzidae The Agromyzidae are a family commonly referred to as the leaf-miner flies, for the feeding habits of their larvae, most of which are leaf miners on various plants. A worldwide family of roughly 2,500 species, they are small, some with wing l ...

(leaf-mining flies). While

cicada The cicadas () are a superfamily, the Cicadoidea, of insects in the order Hemiptera (true bugs). They are in the suborder Auchenorrhyncha, along with smaller jumping bugs such as leafhoppers and froghoppers. The superfamily is divided into tw ...

s are well-known for sound production via abdominal tymbal organs, it has been demonstrated that some species can produce sounds via stridulation, as well. Stridulation is also known in a few

tarantula Tarantulas comprise a group of large and often hairy spiders of the family Theraphosidae. , 1,040 species have been identified, with 156 genera. The term "tarantula" is usually used to describe members of the family Theraphosidae, although m ...

s (Arachnida), and some

pill millipede Pill millipedes are any members of two living (and one extinct) orders of millipedes, often grouped together into a single superorder, Oniscomorpha. The name Oniscomorpha refers to the millipedes' resemblance to certain woodlice (Oniscidea), also ...

s (Diplopoda, Oniscomorpha). It is also widespread among decapod crustaceans, e.g., rock lobsters. Most spiders are silent, but some tarantula species are known to stridulate. When disturbed, ''

Theraphosa blondi The Goliath birdeater (''Theraphosa blondi'') belongs to the tarantula family Theraphosidae. Found in northern South America, it is the largest spider in the world by mass () and body length (up to ), and second to the giant huntsman spider by l ...

'', 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).Goliath Tarantula, ''Theraphosa blondi''
a
Extreme Science
. Accessed 13 March 2007. One of the

wolf spider Wolf spiders are members of the family Lycosidae (). They are robust and agile hunters with excellent eyesight. They live mostly in solitude, hunt alone, and do not spin webs. Some are opportunistic hunters, pouncing upon prey as they find it or ...

s, '' Schizocosa stridulans'', produces low-frequency sounds by flexing its abdomen (tremulation, rather than stridulation) or high-frequency stridulation by using the cymbia on the ends of its

pedipalps Pedipalps (commonly shortened to palps or palpi) are the second pair of appendages of chelicerates – a group of arthropods including spiders, scorpions, horseshoe crabs, and sea spiders. The pedipalps are lateral to the chelicerae ("jaws") and ...

. In most species of spiders, stridulation commonly occurs by males during sexual encounters. In the species ''

Holocnemus pluchei ''Holocnemus pluchei'', commonly known as the marbled cellar spider, is a species of Pholcidae, a family commonly referred to as "cellar spiders" or "daddy long-legs". This species is distributed across the North Pacific region of the United Sta ...

'', females also possess stridulatory organs, and both sexes engage in stridulation. In the species '' Steatoda nobilis,'' the males produce stridulation sounds during mating. The anatomical parts used to produce sound are quite varied: the most common system is that seen in grasshoppers and many other insects, where a hind leg scraper is rubbed against the adjacent forewing (in

beetle Beetles are insects that form the order Coleoptera (), in the superorder Endopterygota. Their front pair of wings are hardened into wing-cases, elytra, distinguishing them from most other insects. The Coleoptera, with about 400,000 describ ...

s and true bugs the forewings are hardened); in crickets and

katydid Insects in the family Tettigoniidae are commonly called katydids (especially in North America), or bush crickets. They have previously been known as "long-horned grasshoppers". More than 8,000 species are known. Part of the suborder Ensifera, ...

s a file on one wing is rubbed by a scraper on the other wing; in longhorned beetles, the back edge of the

pronotum The prothorax is the foremost of the three segments in the thorax of an insect, and bears the first pair of legs. Its principal sclerites (exoskeletal plates) are the pronotum ( dorsal), the prosternum (ventral), and the propleuron (lateral) on e ...

scrapes against a file on the mesonotum; in various other beetles, the sound is produced by moving the head—up/down or side-to-side—while in others the abdominal tergites are rubbed against the elytra; in assassin bugs, the tip of the mouthparts scrapes along a ridged groove in the

prosternum The prothorax is the foremost of the three segments in the thorax of an insect, and bears the first pair of legs. Its principal sclerites (exoskeletal plates) are the pronotum ( dorsal), the prosternum (ventral), and the propleuron (lateral) on e ...

; in velvet ants the back edge of one abdominal tergite scrapes a file on the dorsal surface of the following tergite. 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 is the advertising by an animal to potential predators that it is not worth attacking or eating. This unprofitability may consist of any defences which make the prey difficult to kill and eat, such as toxicity, venom, foul taste ...

, as in velvet ants and tarantulas). This kind of communication was first described by Slovenian biologist Ivan Regen (1868–1947). left, Green Katydid Grasshopper call.

Vertebrate stridulation

Some

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriat ...

venomous snake Venomous snakes are species of the suborder Serpentes that are capable of producing venom, which they use for killing prey, for defense, and to assist with digestion of their prey. The venom is typically delivered by injection using hollow or g ...

s 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 best-known examples are members of the

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

'' Echis'' (saw-scaled vipers), although those of the genus ''

Cerastes The cerastes (Greek: κεράστης, transliteration: ''kerastēs'', meaning "having horns"Atheris desaixi ''Atheris desaixi'', commonly known as the Mount Kenya bush viper,species:Stephen Spawls, Spawls S, William Roy Branch, Branch B (1995). ''The Dangerous Snakes of Africa''. Dubai: Ralph Curtis Books / Oriental Press. 192 pp. .species:David Mallow ...

'', do this as well.Spawls S, Branch B. 1995. The Dangerous Snakes of Africa. Ralph Curtis Books. Dubai: Oriental Press. 192 pp. .Mallow D, Ludwig D, Nilson G. 2003. True Vipers: Natural History and Toxinology of Old World Vipers. Krieger Publishing Company, Malabar, Florida. 359 pp. . A

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweig ...

, the club-winged manakin, has a dedicated stridulation apparatus, while a species of mammal, the

lowland streaked tenrec The lowland streaked tenrec (''Hemicentetes semispinosus'') is a small tenrec found in Madagascar. It belongs to the family Tenrecidae in the order Afrosoricida, and more specifically to the subfamily of the spiny tenrecs Tenrecinae. Its natural ...

, (''Hemicentetes semispinosus'') produces a high-pitched noise by rubbing together specialised quills on its back.

References

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External links

The British Library Sound Archive
contains over 150,000 recordings of animal sounds and natural atmospheres from around the world. Insect behavior Sound Animal sounds Articles containing video clips