All you can do when you go out is to find someone with your legs and all you can say with a roar is "yell".

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Many people must have heard the name "son". Of course, it varies in different regions, such as "good boy", "good boy", "brother" and so on. Insects, as their name suggests, are animals that can emit a series of sounds such as "cackle" or "squeak" in adulthood.

There is nothing wrong with the fact that ordinary people sometimes refer to the insects of the family Weta [Zhangzhongsi] as the insects of the family Weta ng. However, there are many kinds of katydids. In northern China, the name "Weta" is mainly on the "Weta", including today's protagonist, the elegant Weta Gampsocleis gratiosa.

Elegant Weta. Picture: itchydogimages / flickr

There is also a similar insect in the north, Gampsocleis sedakovii, which is called summer squirrel or squeaky because of the early appearance of adults.

The dark brown Weta. Picture: ohmynews.com

Can't fly with wings.

The graceful Weta usually lives in weeds and bushes in the mountains. Their front wings are short, and their hind wings are reduced to very small scales, so they can't fly, so they can only go out on their legs and find people by shouting. Due to the poor migration ability, the elegant Weta distributed in different regions are different in body color and song.

There are no vocal cords, and when the male adult closes through the left and right forewings, the pronunciation file on the left forewing is rubbed against the scraper of the right forewing, which is a membranous area at the base of the wing that resonates. Although the front wings of the elegant Weta are small, the area of the mirror membrane is very large in the katydids, and the song is very loud.

Under the scanning electron microscope, the detailed picture of the dark brown Weta pronunciation file, the serrated arrangement is the file-like structure used for vocal production. Picture: Xue Zhang,ea al./Zookeys (2015)

The singing behavior of Weta gracefully has an obvious circadian rhythm, and there are two singing peaks in a day and night, at noon and evening respectively.

What does the call stand for?

Singing is one of the main ways for animals to transmit information, and different behaviors will produce different types of songs. The acoustic behavior of insects is generally caused by two aspects.

One is the response of sensory organs to external stimuli, such as alarm behavior. Katydids sound a warning songs-when they encounter predators or disturbances, they sound to alarm or intimidate their predators. The warning sound of the elegant Weta is similar to the sound of the school bell (electric bell) in childhood, hasty and shrill.

The second is the response to physiological behaviors such as mating and courtship, such as the call sound (calling songs)-the sound made by a single male when there is no female or enemy, undisturbed, which is mainly enjoyed by people raising birds at home.

Does it evoke your childhood memories? Audio: second pig

Then there is the courtship sound (courtship songs)-when males and females coexist in the environment, the males approach the females and make a soft sound, which can stimulate the females to achieve the purpose of courtship; in the wild, when the graceful Weta males perceive the approach of the females, they turn to a deeper song than the call.

Of course, many katydids and crickets will rival songs when two males of the same species meet for food, mate or territory, and the victorious side will also make a victory songs.

Take a big bite of food and meat as well.

The name "elegant Weta" is the official Chinese name given by scientists. Although it has the word "elegant", it is a kind of insect with a short, fat body and relatively thin limbs. It is not "elegant" in appearance, and it is very bold and bold to eat.

The flowers, fruits, stems and leaves of many plants are on the elegant Weta menu, and in the north, people often pick pumpkins and male flowers from their yards to feed them in summer. As a matter of fact, the elegant Weta is omnivorous katydids, in addition to stuttering "vegetables", "meat" can not be less.

Some bugs are also the midday food of the elegant Weta. Picture: nsc.ru

Protruding round compound eyes and slender antennae allow the Weta to accurately target its surrounding prey, while strong leaping feet provide the power to jump and launch a surprise attack. The Weta's front middle tibia has distance and spines, which means that the first four legs have "thorns" on their large and small legs. During predation, the four legs close together to restrict and fix the prey, and the well-developed tarsal cushions and terminal claws on the tarsus make it difficult for the prey to escape.

Take a closer look at the legs and mouthparts of the elegant Weta. Picture: itchydogimages / flickr

For most insects, the Weta's chewing mouthparts are probably like the hydraulic forceps invented by humans-the sharp, powerful upper jaw can easily cut up the exoskeleton armor of any prey.

You can also enjoy marshmallows in winter.

The female Weta carries a "sword"-a sword-shaped spawning flap at the end of the abdomen. Soon after mating, the female will insert her sword into the soil and lay her eggs in loose, permeable soil.

Because they are mainly distributed in the north, the eggs laid by Weta gracefully in autumn rely on diapause to survive the cold winter. When the temperature difference is very significant in a day, the fertilized egg begins to develop; after a period of time, the weather turns cold, enters the diapause period, and the development stagnates; when the summer comes and the temperature rises, the embryo takes shape and finally breaks out of the egg. A very small number of fertilized eggs born later in the first year that do not begin to develop before the temperature is too low may even wait until the next summer to hatch.

Graceful Weta green adults. Picture: itchydogimages / flickr

As a traditional songworm in the north, people have mastered the law of Weta reproduction in practice and observation for a long time, and began to breed artificially, including hatching and raising "winter mackerel" in winter-- after entering winter, the nymphs hatched ahead of time when the low temperature was enough to relieve diapause, so that the nymphs hatched ahead of time in winter, so that people could enjoy the nymph in the cold winter.

Modern refrigerators and temperature control equipment make artificial breeding very different from traditional, so there is no season limit for the hatching and breeding of elegant Weta.

This is the 241st article in the fourth year of the species calendar, from @ Jin Chen, author of the species calendar.

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The katydids are green.