Songs of Insects

Davis’s Tree Cricket (Oecanthus exclamationis)

Song of a Davis’s Tree Cricket (scroll down for explanation and additional recordings!).

Arboreal in habits, the pale and lovely Davis’s Tree Cricket resides high in trees and is difficult to find and collect, though well worth the effort. Violent thunderstorms may shake or knock them from their perches, and searching for them in the shrub layer after such a storm can be productive. Ocassionally, a male can be found singing low enough to observe or capture with the help of a stepladder. In residential settings, this species is especially fond of dogwood trees. It was named after American entomologist William T. Davis (1862–1945).
 
 
 

Base of antennae.

Davis’s Tree Cricket

Song:A mellow but rapid trill, irregularly interrupted by short pauses. The trill rate is about 65 pulses per second, given at a frequency of 2.5 kHz. The song is heard from late evening into the night. The mellow nature of the song and it’s presence in deciduous woodlands creates a lovely end to the day in these habitats.
 
 
 
 

Sonogram of a Davis’s Tree Cricket. © Wil Hershberger.