Daddy brought me out to the playground again this morning... this time it was cooler (in the literal sense, not in the 'hip' sense)... when I heard a loud and very audible "creaking' amongst the trees...Guess what I saw?
This was what I saw... Daddy says its a cicada... 蝉 in Chinese (http://www.nciku.com/search/en/cicada)
Some sample sounds can be found per link below
http://abbot.si.edu/highlight/cicadas/audio.htm
Daddy also found the following information on cicadas and their 'songs' from wikipedia @ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cicada
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Male cicadas have loud noisemakers called "timbals" on the sides of the abdominal base. Their "singing" is not the stridulation (where two structures are rubbed against one another) of many other familiar sound-producing insects like crickets: the timbals are regions of the exoskeleton that are modified to form a complex membrane with thin, membranous portions and thickened "ribs".
Contracting the internal timbal muscles produces a clicking sound as the timbals buckle inwards. As these muscles relax, the timbals return to their original position producing another click. The interior of the male abdomen is substantially hollow to amplify the resonance of the sound.
A cicada rapidly vibrates these membranes, and enlarged chambers derived from the tracheae make its body serve as a resonance chamber, greatly amplifying the sound. They modulate their noise by wiggling their abdomens toward and away from the tree that they are on. Additionally, each species has its own distinctive song.[1]
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We also discovered a caterpillar crawling along one of the side walls.
Okay, enough on the flora and fauna...
Will update more soon, yah?
:) have a good weekend, everyone!
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