Bugs Club - Listen to songs of crickets and katydids

BUGS CLUB

Listen to songs of crickets and katydids

　　　 "Matsumushi" is singing!

What you can learn from this activity: Listen carefully to songs of insects, and look carefully at behavior of insects at night. With these experiences, help realize varieties of living things are living around us, and how these insects live in varieties of habitats.

When and where to do: At night in August to October at grass fields.

Materials and preparations:

Prepared by participants: Adhesive tape, scissors, towel, inscet net, insect holding basket, pencil, magnifying lens, hand-light

Equipment by coordinator: Map of field (A0 or A1 size), clipboard, rubber bands (4 x numbers of participants), leaflet, questionnaire, first aid box, disporsable foamed plastic bowl (one for each participant), cricket traps, dot labels

Procedure:

In a building: 1. Recieve the leaflet including a fild map with a clipboard. 2. By answering quiz, learn about crickets and katydids such as how they sing and how they listen. 3. Make "big ears" to capture many songs of crickets.

Outside: 1. Go outside, and listen carefully to singing of insects. 2. Translate the songs into your words as you listen, and jot it down on the leaflet. 3. Tell others what you wrote. Memorize the song of "Mathumushi" cricket at least. 4. Think about how you can find a cricket or katydid who is singing. 5. Take a walk, and record place on the map when you hear song of "Matsumushi". Walk with your family so that you do not got lost.

After back from outside: 1. Put dot labels to the places where you hear "Matsumushi" song on the big map. 2. What do you thnik? Where and how do "Matsumushi" crickets live?

Back to Activity Information

Pictures of the activity :

There are many insects who sing. Let's make "Big ear"!

Cut the plastic bown into two, and connect them with rubber bands. Are you ready?

What you can hear? Yes, this is the song of "Matsumushi", and you memorize it.

You can catch a cricket with this kind of trap. Also you can just sweep with an insect net. What did you get?

After returning from the field, we put dots to show where "Matsumushi" crickets live.

This is the "Matsumushi" map we made! You see where they live.