Below are graphs of the calling songs of house and field crickets.
For each species there are two graphs, each representing the same 2 seconds of calling:
The upper graph, an oscillogram, displays the amplitude (loudness) of the call as vertical displacement on both sides of a horizontal base line. [During silence, an oscillogram is a horizontal line.]
The lower graph, an audiospectrogram, displays amplitude as darkness of mark and frequency (pitch) as the height of the marks above a base line (not shown). The tick marks at the left of the audiospectrogram are at 1 kHz (1000 cycles per second) intervals. The value of the center (red) tick mark is in red above the graphs. Because the graph is made for maximum time discrimination (rather than for maximum frequency discrimination), a continuous pure frequency would plot as a broad band about 0.8 kHz wide.
Above the oscillogram for each species are these items:
common name: linked to the home page for the species.
normal song: linked to a wav file of 8 to 10 seconds of typical
calling song.
slowed song: linked to a wav file of normal calling song slowed
to 1/4 speed. You will have 8 seconds to listen to the same 2 seconds
of calling song that is graphed. The carrier frequency (pitch) will be
dropped to 1/4 normal. At this slow speed you can easily hear the pulses
(tone bursts) that correspond to closing strokes of the forewings. To see
an animation of the wing movement of a chirping field cricket, click
here.
n kHz: gives the approximate carrier frequency of the song.
n: the value of the red kHz tick mark.
explanation: linked to this explanation.
| house
cricket
(Acheta domesticus) |
 normal
song |
slowed
song |
|
|
|
 |
|||||
| tropical
house cricket
(Gryllodes sigillatus) |
normal
song |
slowed
song |
|
|
|
 |
|||||
| sand
field cricket
(Gryllus firmus) |
normal
song |
slowed
song |
|
|
|
 |
|||||
| southeastern
field cricket
(Gryllus rubens) |
normal
song |
slowed
song |
|
|
|
 |
|||||
| southwestern
field cricket
(Gryllus texensis) |
normal
song |
slowed
song |
|
|
|
 |
|||||
| Jamaican
field cricket
(Gryllus assimilis) |
normal
song |
slowed
song |
|
|
|
 |
|||||
| southern
wood cricket
(Gryllus fultoni) |
normal
song |
slowed
song |
|
|
|
 |
|||||
Featured Creatures
Department of
Entomology and Nematology
Division of Plant
Industry
Extension Digital Information Source