The effect of weather conditions, temperature, and

1
The effect of weather conditions, temperature,
and time of day on cricket chirps
Presented by Justina Washington and Robyn
Hvizdak
Results
Introduction
Fig. 1
Fig. 5
The main focus of this study is to examine the
relationship between time of day, temperature,
and weather conditions with respect to the number
of chirps crickets produce under these
conditions.

• Crickets are insects that function under about 24
  h periods known as circadian rhythms(Yukizane et
  al). The complete control of the system for
  cricket calling has both environment-dependent
  and environment-independent components (Alcock
  2001). Adult crickets become more active at
  night and at higher temperatures. House
  crickets are commonly preyed upon by parasitoid
  flies(Ormia ochracea). Females but not males of
  parasitoid flies find their prey by listening to
  the calls of male crickets (Alcock 2001).

Fig. 2
Figure 5- increase of chirps with overcast
weather conditions.
Discussion

• House Cricket (Acheta domesticus)
• Male crickets are equipped with a heavy vein with
  a row of teeth on the underside at the front of
  each wing. The top of one wing is used to scrape
  against the underside of the other wing,
  producing a high pitched chirp.
• Crickets have unique songs for courtship,
  fighting, and sounding an alarm.
• Habitat Forests, meadows, lawns, houses
• Range worldwide

• Cricket chirps increase with respect to all three
  variables.
• The increase of chirps for weather conditions and
  time of day may be due to the predators inability
  to locate the cricket.
• Crickets have the threat of predation and
  competition for females throughout the day
  although most of their activity takes place at
  night.
• The lack of chirps as temperature decreases could
  be due to the slowing down of the crickets
  metabolism. As with most organisms, the crickets
  must conserve their energy during cold
  conditions.
• To ensure accuracy of these results, further
  observations should be done over a longer period
  of time to include greater variance in
  temperature and weather conditions.

Fig. 3
Materials and Methods
Fig. 4

• We allowed male and female crickets to cohabitate
  in an aquarium in which we provided sand, hiding
  places, carrots for food, and water. The
  crickets were placed outside to be sure they were
  subjected to natural temperature, weather, and
  time of day. The crickets were placed in a
  separate holding tank to be observed. Over a
  period of seven days, we observed individual male
  crickets 3 in the morning(1130a.m.), 3 at
  dusk(500p.m.), and 3 at night(700p.m.), which
  gave us a total of 21 runs per day. Within
  intervals of twenty minutes, we recorded the
  total number of chirps by using click counters.
  The crickets were released afterwards to
  eliminate the chance of false replication.

Works Cited
Yukizane, M. et al. 2002. Electrophysiological
and morphological characterization of the medulla
bilateral neurons that connect bilateral optic
lobes in the cricket, Gryllus bimaculatus.
48(6)631-641. Alcock, John. Animal Behaviour.
Sixth Edition. 2001.
The three above graphs show that chirps increased
at higher temperatures(F).
Acknowledgements We would like to thank Dr.
Hill, The Fishermans Headquarters, and Coastal
Carolina University for their support on this
project.