News Animals

Small, quiet crickets turn leaves into megaphones to blare their mating call

A carefully crafted leaf can double the volume of a male’s song, helping it compete for females

cricket poking through hole in a leaf

A male Oecanthus henryi tree cricket peeks through a hole it cut in a leaf. By calling from this self-made tool called a baffle, males can more than double the volume of their mating song and attract more females, new research shows.

Rittik Deb

By Jonathan Lambert

- More than 2 years ago

Updated

The rules of the tree cricket world, sexually speaking, are simple.