Singing Insects of North America

The primary goal of this Web site is to enable users to identify crickets, katydids, and cicadas from America north of Mexico.  The males of most species in these groups make loud, persistent calls that attract sexually ready, conspecific females.  Because the songs are loud and species specific they are usually an easy means of identifying the caller. They also facilitate field and laboratory studies of many sorts.

Secondary goals are to attract amateur and professional biologists to the study of singing insects and to provide helpful information and access to literature.

New book: The Songs of Insects, by Lang Elliott and Wil Hershberger, 2006.
   This beautiful, affordable book features 75 commonly heard North American species, comes with a CD of the songs, and has its own
   web site. To see and hear any of the species, go to the site's Online Guide: Master Species List and click on the name of a species.

Identification manual: Field Guide to Grasshoppers, Katydids, and Crickets of the United States.
   About the manual. Tips for using this web site to supplement the Field Guide's treatments of katydids and crickets. Listen to sample songs.

Important: Portions of Singing Insects of North America [SINA] will take about two more years to complete. In the meanwhile, the parts that are complete or in progress are open for use. To determine the status of any of the five major divisions of SINA click on one of the navigation buttons at the top of this page.

Go to this page ("Home") and click on How to recognize crickets, katydids, and cicadas.

Go to the division dealing with Crickets, Katydids, or Cicadas and click on the Keys button. When you must decide among the species within a genus, seek advice or help on the genus page. Then browse the species pages and accept or reject the choices on the basis of appearance, song, morphological features, and geographical, seasonal, and ecological distribution.

Go to the division dealing with Crickets, Katydids, or Cicadas and click on the List of Species button. In the checklist, find the species (by scientific or common name) and click on the link.

Go to the appropriate division (Crickets, Katydids, or Cicadas) and click on the List of Species button. Within the checklist, find the genus or subfamily (by scientific or common name) and click on the link.

Go to the subfamily page (from the key to subfamilies or from the list of species). The first section of the subfamily page will have a link to the key to genera.

Most of the pages in Singing Insects of North America [SINA] are either taxa pages (for example, species pages, genus pages, subfamily pages, and family pages) or image pages. Image pages display the "regular" version of an image (see Image views), describe the image, and give its source. They are usually accessed from thumbnails of the image on a taxon page. Other types of pages are pictorial key pages, checklist pages (accessed from "List of species" buttons), and general information pages (such as this one).

SINA has dark-green buttons and gold buttons that facilitate rapid movement to and from every part of the site. The dark-green buttons, at the top of most pages, take the user to the major divisions of SINA. The gold buttons, at the bottom of species pages and at the top of most image pages, are for local moves. The text on each button identifies its action. "Next Species" and "Previous Species" buttons move the user from species to species in the same (alphabetical) order as in the checklists. "Next Image" and "Previous Image" buttons move the user among images of a species in the same sequence as they occur in thumbnail views on a taxon page.

Most images can be viewed in three sizes: thumbnail (128 pixels wide or less), regular (usually 640 pixels wide), and jumbo (usually 1280 pixels wide). To move up the scale of magnification, click on the image. To move down from a jumbo view, use the Back function of your browser. To move down from a regular view, use the appropriate local navigation button.

Most links on this site are internal--that is, they go to items that are posted as part of SINA. Links that go to items that are not part of SINA are identified by the text for the link being a URL. For example, here is an external link to the online version of the Orthoptera Species File:  http://osf2.orthoptera.org/basic/HomePage.asp.   And here is an internal one to How to use SINA.

All references in SINA are now listed both in a union list and in at least one subject-specific list of references. The subject-specific lists are on the pages for particular SINA subjects, usually subfamilies or genera. This places the most relevant references for these subjects in a place where they can be browsed efficiently. The union list is primarily to provide an efficient means to determine whether a known reference is available in full text on this site. More than 250 of the more than 650 listed references are so available, usually in the form of PDF files made by scanning articles or reprints.

Citations to literature in the text of SINA are made by the name-year system (e.g., Walker 1974). Each in-text citation is linked, as in the example just given, to an entry in a list of references. Each entry specifies the item of literature in enough detail to permit its retrieval from a library that holds it. In some cases the entry is linked to the full text of the item in PDF format. [Note: PDF files of full text are often large and take many minutes to download without a fast connection to the Internet.]

The PDF document "Coding system for SINA files" explains how SINA's more than 5000 files are named.

Other acknowledgements
General

Piotr Naskrecki encouraged us make an interactive Web site that could be distributed via CDs rather than merely make audio CDs of the songs of North American insects. The CD accompanying his Katydids of Costa Rica (http://viceroy.eeb.uconn.edu/book/book.htm) inspired us to begin this project, and we have shamelessly copied, with his approval, many of the devices that make his CD so compelling.

During more than 40 years of studying crickets and katydids in North America, indoors and out, I've been helped in large ways and small by more persons than I can remember. The ones listed here are among those who deserve special credit.

Alexander RD, Otte D. 1967. The evolution of genitalia and mating behavior in crickets (Gryllidae) and other Orthoptera. Misc Publ Mus Zool, Univ Michigan, No. 133. 62 p. [4939 KB]

Alexander RD, Pace AE, Otte D. 1972. The singing insects of Michigan. Gt. Lakes Entomol. 5: 33-69. [3627 KB]

Barnum AH. 1952. The taxonony of Utah Orthoptera with notes on distribution. M.A. thesis, Zoology and Entomology, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT.

Blatchley WS. 1920. Orthoptera of northeastern America. Indianapolis, IN: Nature Publishing. 784 p. Title page and introduction: pp. 1-40 [3392 KB]. PDF files of other parts are with the accounts of crickets and katydids and their families and subfamilies.

Cantrall IJ. 1941. Compendium of entomological methods. Pt II. Notes on collecting and preserving Orthoptera. Rochester, NY: Wards Natural Science Establishment. 28 p. [3236 KB]

Cantrall IJ. 1943. The ecology of the Orthoptera and Dermaptera of the George Reserve, Michigan. Misc Publ Mus Zool Univ Mich no. 54. 182 pp + 10 plates.

Cantrall IJ. 1968. An annotated list of the Dermaptera, Dictyoptera, Phasmatoptera, and Orthoptera of Michigan. Mich. Entomol. 1: 299-346.

Dethier VG. 1992. Crickets and katydids, concerts and solos. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. 140 p.

Fulton BB. 1930. Notes on Oregon Orthoptera with descriptions of new species and races. Ann Entomol Soc Am 23(4):611-641. [2980 KB]

Fulton BB. 1932. North Carolina's singing Orthoptera. J. Elisha Mitchell Sci. Soc. 47: 55-69. [1259 KB]

Fulton BB. 1951. The seasonal succession of orthopteran stridulation near Raleigh, North Carolina. J. Elisha Mitchell Sci. Soc. 67: 87-95. [762 KB]

Gangwere SK. 1961. A monograph on food selection in Orthoptera. Trans. Am. Entomol. Soc. 87: 67-230. [10.4MB]

Gwynne DL. 1995. Phylogeny of the Ensifera (Orthoptera): a hypothesis supporting multiple origins of acoustical signalling, complex spermatophores and maternal care in crickets, katydids, and weta. J. Orthop. Res. 4: 203-218. [2475 KB]

Hebard M. 1934. Dermaptera and Orthoptera in the Kansas State College Collection. J. Kans. Entomol. Soc. 7: 25-36. [986 KB]

Hebard M. 1935. Orthoptera of the Upper Rio Grande Valley and the adjacent mountains in northern New Mexico. Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila. 87: 45-47, 69-82. [pp. 48-68 omitted] [1500 KB]

Hubbell TH. 1936. A monographic revision of the genus Ceuthophilus (Orthoptera, Gryllacrididae, Rhaphidophorinae). Univ Fla Publ Biol Sci Series vol. 2, no. 1. 551 p., 38 pl.

McAtee WL, Caudell AN. 1918. First list of the Dermaptera and Orthoptera of Plummers Island, Maryland, and vicinity. Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington 19:100-122.

McCafferty WP, Stein JL. 1976. Indiana Ensifera (Orthoptera). Gt. Lakes Entomol. 9: 25-56.

Naskrecki P, Otte D. 1997-2002. Orthoptera Species File Online. [See Otte, Eades, and Naskrecki 2001+ for the continuation.]

Nickle DA, Carlysle TC. 1975. Morphology and function of female sound-producing structures in ensiferan Orthoptera with special emphasis on the Phaneropterinae. Int. J. Insect Morph. Embryol. 4: 159-168.

Otte D, Eades DC, Naskrecki P. 2001+. Orthoptera Species File Online (Version 2). [Continually updated online database: http://osf2.orthoptera.org/basic/HomePage.asp. Because Piotr Naskrecki is revising the classification of katydids (Tettigonioidea), he has posted that portion of OSF2, in a new format, at http://www.tettigonia.com, where he is updating and enriching the data.]

Rehn JAG, Hebard M. 1916. Studies in the Dermaptera and Orthoptera of the Coastal Plain and Piedmont region of the southeastern United States. Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila. 68: 87-314. 2 pl. [7,052 KB] [The pdf file omits caeliferans; it has pp. 87-111, 253-312, 314 and pl. 14.]

Rentz DCF, Weissman DB. 1981. Faunal affinities, systematics, and bionomics of the Orthoptera of the California Channel Islands. U Calif Publ in Entomology 94: 1-240. [The PDF file includes only a key to taxa and accounts and images of Gryllidae & Tettigoniidae: pp 48-57, 88-112, 213-232.] [5721 KB]

Sharov AG. [1968] 1971. Phylogeny of the Orthopteroidea [translation]. Jerusalem: Israel Program for Scientific Translations. 251 p.

Stoetzel MB. 1989. Common names of insects & related organisms. Lanham, MD: Entomological Society of America. 199 p.

Tinkham ER. 1948. Faunistic and ecological studies on the Orthoptera of the Big Bend Region of Trans-Pecos Texas with especial reference to the orthopteran zones and faunae of Midwestern North America. Am Midl Nat 40: 521-663. [pp. 521-556 and 620-663 only; 6948 KB]

Vickery VR, Kevan DKM. 1985. The grasshoppers, crickets, and related insects of Canada and adjacent regions. Ottawa: Canadian Govt Publ Center. 918 p. [ISBN 0-660-11749-5]

Walker TJ. 1974. Character displacement and acoustic insects.  Am. Zool. 14: 1137-1150.  [3025 KB]

Yang J-T, Chao J-T, Liu W-Y. 1994. Collecting crickets (Orthoptera: Gryllidae) using peanut butter bait traps. J. Orthop. Res. 3: 87-89.