stridulate verb, noun stridulation, adjective stridulatory - sound production by rubbing together body parts. Found in many insect groups, including:

Crickets, Katydids, Grasshoppers--Orthoptera

True Bugs and allies--Hemiptera

Beetles--Coleoptera

Stridulation is most often an advertisement of male insects, but it can also serve for other forms of intra-specific communication, or as a warning to, or defense against, predators. Typically, stridulations are produced by rubbing a series of projecting parts (spines or tubercles) against a file-like surface (pars stridens).

Examples of stridulatory structures and/or insects that stridulate:

Print References

Gordh, entries for stridulate, etc. (1)

Internet References

Wikipedia--Stridulation

Works Cited

1.	A Dictionary of Entomology By George Gordh, David H. Headrick

Contributed by Cotinis on 4 July, 2008 - 5:19am
Last updated 11 July, 2008 - 7:54am

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