September 20, 2009 - Chirping Thermometers

Welcome to the Nature Notebook.

Referred to as “nature’s living thermometer,” nocturnal snowy tree crickets are active this time of year. Compared to black field crickets, snowy tree crickets are ghostly, ranging from pale green to white with transparent wings. Tree crickets, as their name implies, spend most of their time in shrubs and trees. Females lay eggs in the bark of woody branches. These eggs overwinter and hatch in the spring. Young nymphs reach maturity by midsummer when males begin their singing for mates. By counting the number of chirps in 13 seconds and adding 40 you can get a good sense of the temperature. Listen to this snowy tree cricket. Compare a warm male with a cold one. Could you tell the temperature of each?
 
This is PPL's naturalist, Jon Beam, with the Nature Notebook for WVIA.