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The Journal of Experimental Biology 205, 613-625 (2002)
© 2002 The Company of Biologists Limited

Ticking of the clockwork cricket: the role of the escapement mechanism

H. C. Bennet-Clark1,* and Winston J. Bailey2

1 Department of Zoology, Oxford University, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PS, UK and
2 Department of Zoology, University of Western Australia, Nedlands, WA 6907, Australia

*e-mail: henry.bennet-clark{at}zoo.ox.ac.uk

Accepted 10 December 2001

The ‘clockwork cricket’ model for cricket sound production suggests that the catch-and-release of the file of one forewing by the plectrum on the opposite wing act as an ‘escapement’ to provide the phasic impulses that initiate and sustain the vibration of the resonant regions of the wings from which the sounds are produced. The action of the escapement produces the familiar ticking sound of clocks.

The higher-frequency components of the songs of twelve species of cricket were analysed after removing the dominant low-frequency components and amplifying the remaining higher-frequency components. In normal song pulses of all species, the higher-frequency components showed a close phase-locking to the waveform of the dominant frequency, but the amplitude of the higher-frequency components did not correlate with that at the dominant frequency.

Anomalous pulses occurred spontaneously in the songs of several species: multimodal, interrupted or curtailed pulses are described. In all of these, the anomalous pulse envelope was associated with changes in the amplitude and/or instantaneous frequency of the higher-frequency components of the sound.

A model of the escapement suggests that the frequency of the residual components of the song depends on the symmetry of action of the plectrum on the teeth of the file.

Key words: cricket, Gryllidae, sound production, escapement, file and plectrum, high-frequency sound, resonator.




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© The Company of Biologists Ltd 2002