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The silence of the crickets

05.04.2007

Field crickets living on the Hawaiian island of Kauai have largely stopped making sounds.

The fact is that the song of a cricket is intended to attract a female, but small parasitic flies flock to the sound, laying their testicles on the cricket, from which larvae emerge, devouring the singer. Therefore, in 90% of crickets, the shape of the edges of the wings has changed in recent years. The crickets continue to rub their wings against their legs, but there is no sound.

Apparently, this is the result of natural selection: males with normal wings make sounds and therefore often die from parasites. The survey showed that 30% of singing crickets and only 0% of silent crickets were infected with parasites.

How then do silent crickets reproduce? They find a singing brother and intercept females from him, entomologists believe, two scenarios are possible: either the singing insects will completely disappear and the entire population will die out after them, or some balance will be established. Silent crickets survive better, but singing crickets reproduce more actively. Meanwhile, parasitic flies are becoming less and less, as it is increasingly difficult for them to find prey.

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