Learn something new!
Insects readily make their presence known at two points during the year - the spring when the aquatic insects emerge to mate, and summer when the more terrestrial bugs set out to do the same. The most noticeable of these warm weather wonders are either visually interesting, like the fireflies, butterflies, and moths or produce a cacophonous chorus like the katydids, crickets, and cicadas.
Summer wouldn’t be summer without the regular emergence of fireflies. Easily the most recognized bioluminescent set of species, fireflies’ characteristic green strobe illuminates the night from July to September.
The other common nighttime fliers are moths. Moths are highly specialized creatures that can navigate in near darkness using a variety of methods from active echolocation to the acute senses of smell and, believe it or not, acute vision.
The daytime cousins of moths, butterflies, make for pleasant flower visitors throughout the summer. Butterflies, like most birds, see well into ultraviolet wavelengths of light which makes things like flowers and freshly laundered clothes fluoresce brightly in daylight.
Summer has a much different night soundtrack than the spring. Where the amphibians are the major contributors to the auditory experience of spring evenings, insects are the main source in the warmer months.
The commotion created by crickets and katydids comes from tiny structures on their wings. One wing has tiny ridges and the other a hardened scraper that moves along the ridges “playing” the wing like a washboard.
The other sound filling the nighttime air during the summer is the unmistakable tremor of the cicadas. In their case the structures that create their particular sound come from a series of membranes called tymbals that resemble the ones in our ears.