Last week I learned that you can tell the air temperature by counting the chirps of crickets as they chirp faster as the temperature increases. I went looking on the internet and found this formula to work out what the temperature in both °F and °C is:
It got me wondering whether crickets and cicadas were the same thing so went looking on a few websites. The guide to NZ invertebrates website states that crickets are part of the Orthoptera order and there are 5 New Zealand species plus several introduced species. Weta and grasshoppers are also Orthoptera, and they all have powerful chewing jaws.
Cicadas are part of the Homoptera order with about 40 species native to NZ. Homoptera have tube-shaped sucking mouth parts and live on plant sap and include aphids, mealybugs and scale insects. Te Ara Encyclopaedia has this to say about cicadas.
I've just received a BBC Earth DVD called 'Hidden Kingdoms - Small Worlds, Giant Stories' that is narrated by Stephen Fry. With two days off work I'm looking forward to watching at least a couple of episodes and will let you know what it's like.
I've been watching a few small worlds of my own too. Here's a couple of spider nurseries, the first on a tyre and the second one is on the outside of my kitchen window.
They are fascinating to watch - sometimes the little ones move around a lot, at other times they are so still that I think they've died! Mrs Spider was watching over the nest on the tyre and it would have been great to get her in the photo. By the time I'd got my camera she had scarpered - must be as camera shy as me!!
This insect was uncovered whilst I was filling my planter bags from the compost pile - I need to get it identified on NatureWatch unless I get lucky with finding it on the internet first.
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| Are they immature wings that haven't fully developed yet? |
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| What big jaws I have!! |
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| 8 legs, short body and extra-large jaws |
More QI in the next blog...
