Stridulation Frequency Dependence on Music Genre in Acheta domesticus (Linnaeus)(Orthoptera: Gryllidae).

Crickets are mainly nocturnal species known for the loud, persistent, chirping sounds many of their species make. Cricket chirping, or stridulation, is produced when the insect rubs together stridulatory organs located on the forewings. Stridulation is a form of intraspecific acoustic communication used by males to entice females. However, predators and parasitic insects may exploit their singing, using it to find their cricket prey. Consequently, crickets cease chirping when they sense sound frequency vibrations nearby, indicating that a predator is nearby. In this experiment, the cricket species Acheta domesticus (Linnaeus)(Orthoptera:Gryllidae) was used to test stridulation frequency differences based on exposure to different music genres. Crickets were exposed to either silence (control), hip hop, jazz, country, or classical music. During this music exposure period, the number of chirps was counted for one minute. Stridulation frequency was 83.3 chirps per minute for the control setting, 65 chirps per minute for classical music, 61.3 chirps per minute for country music, 54 chirps per minute for jazz music, and 41 chirps per minute for hip hop music. Causative factors for this trend may be due to neurological characteristics of the cricket. A major auditory sensory neuron, Ascending Neuron 1 (AN1), is excited by both highfrequency sounds and self-generated chirps. We conclude that music genres dominated by highfrequency sounds, such as hip hop and jazz, stimulate AN1, causing increased auditory information to be sent to the brain, leading to decreased stridulation as crickets interpret this information as the presence of a possible threat. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]