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Music festivals proliferate in summer, but if we really want to know the true sound of this season of the year, it is best to get in touch with nature. This is how, in a field of almond trees on the road from Altet to Canós, in the Urgell region, I captured these images of the cicada’s song for Las Fotos de los Lectores de La Vanguardia.
The sound of the cicada (Lyristes plebejus) is rough and continuous, although it varies if you get closer. We can hear it in groves and vineyards during the summer.
Stridulation is called the action of producing sound by friction of certain parts of the body. In the case of this species of cicada, typical of the Mediterranean area, the sound they emit can exceed 150 decibels of intensity.
This call allows females to locate singing males and choose the one with the most powerful song. This cicada is one of the largest in Europe, as its body reaches five centimeters in size and achieves a wingspan of 10 centimeters. In this video we can see her in detail and hear her singing.
We could say that cicadas are for the summer, when we can enjoy their music. And it is that they die before the cold arrives.
Homoptera are a group of insects (all have six legs) that have a great impact on agriculture. A curiosity of cicadas is that they have two nails on each leg.
These herbivorous insects bite and suck the sap from plants. Before dying, they lay eggs between the cracks in the bark of the trees. Its nymphs, when born, drop and feed on the sap of the roots. When they are adults, they offer their song, but only the males. If we go to the countryside this summer, we will be able to hear them.
