Cicadas Calling

I was sitting by the window with my young friend - a kid named P a few days ago. A cicada sat there unwilling to move. We tapped its wings gently but there was no response. After a while, it flew away on its own. Later in the evening, the woods were humming with the sounds of cicadas - loud and overpowering. By then it was dinner time for us. P noted that most creatures are much louder and noisier than humans adjusted for body size and weight. The cicada is loud, so are bird and cats and dogs. Humans are relatively much quieter. His interesting observation made sense and made me look up exactly how loud cicadas can be.

A cicada is capable of causing such a racket due to vibrations of its "tymbals," or sound production organ composed of corrugated exoskeleton. The insect will actually deform its body to contract at rates of 300 to 400 times per second. In humans, this would be tantamount to sucking in your ribcage to the point of collapse, and then releasing it again. And because a cicada's abdomen is uniquely hollow, the sounds that emerge from it are amplified to much higher levels.

It's a saving grace that humans are not blessed with "tymbals". We already cause a lot of trouble for the earth and creatures inhabiting it. Maybe best that we are not supremely noisy as well.