In 1920, New York City native William Davis noticed that the constant whine of katydids that once filled the night air was gone. The katydid, Davis wrote in the Journal of the New York Entomological Society, "is either extinct or nearly so on Staten Island." At first, he suspected that smoke from factories had driven the katydids away. But then he noticed that the insects were also gone from the seashore and "about 50 miles of the most rural parts."
After stumbling across this 90-year-old paper, a katydid researcher has now decided to tackle the unsolved mystery of the vanishing insects by asking New Yorkers to help conduct a cricket census.
The Entomological Society, along with the United States Geological Survey and several other organizations are sponsoring "NYC Cricket Crawl" on the evening of Sept. 11. The researchers are inviting New Yorkers to go to "parklands, undeveloped and neglected areas" and to listen for one minute. These citizen researchers are then being asked to write down the location and a best guess of how many individuals of seven different species of katydids and crickets they hear.
The data should be immediately texted or emailed to the scientists.
While undeveloped areas are more likely to contain the insects, the researchers are looking for data from anywhere in the city. Instructions, counting sheets and other information are available at http://www.discoverlife.org/cricket/.
By Jim Dawson
Inside Science News Service
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Showing posts with label cricket. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cricket. Show all posts
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
UGA student sets state cricket-spitting record
David Friedman sent a cricket flying 31.55 feet – with his mouth. Now the University of Georgia junior from St. Simons holds the unofficial state record for cricket spitting.
“I would say the secret is you got to get a good lunge forward with the head and diaphragm,” said Friedman, a finance major in UGA’s Terry College of Business. “Put your whole body into it. My sister and I used to see how far we could spit watermelon seeds, so I guess that helped out.”
Friedman’s unusual honor was awarded during an entomology service-learning class this spring.
The cricket-spitting contest is the newest addition to the annual Insect Zoo hosted by the UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences entomology department. Now in its 24th year, the zoo’s organizers decided it was time to send things hopping.
Cricket spitting started at Purdue University in 1996 when entomology professor Tom Turpin added the competition to the annual Bug Bowl event there. In 1998, Dan Capps from Madison, Wis., set the current Guinness World Record with a cricket spit of 32 feet and a half inch.
UGA entomology program coordinator Marianne Robinette plans to invite Guinness officials to the 2010 insect zoo. She’s hoping a Georgian will set the world record.
For an amateur, Friedman came close.
“My second cricket reached 31.55 feet,” he said. “I would say it was pretty miraculous, almost like a hole in one, but more like an eagle on a par five.”
In addition to reaching the farthest distance, Friedman’s brown house cricket had to land intact – with six legs, four wings and two antennas. And, he had 20 seconds to accomplish this feat.
Robinette was in charge of the rules and regulations for the contest and making sure the crickets were sterilized.
“We soaked them in alcohol, rinsed them in water and froze them,” she said.
Friedman plans to put his honor and his newly gained insect knowledge to use in the future.
“I’ll be the coolest dad in the world because I will know everything about bugs,” he said. “Or if I am ever lost in the wild, I may know what can or can’t harm me, or what I may or may not eat.”
By Stephanie Schupska
University of Georgia
Stephanie Schupska is a news editor with the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.
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“I would say the secret is you got to get a good lunge forward with the head and diaphragm,” said Friedman, a finance major in UGA’s Terry College of Business. “Put your whole body into it. My sister and I used to see how far we could spit watermelon seeds, so I guess that helped out.”
Friedman’s unusual honor was awarded during an entomology service-learning class this spring.
The cricket-spitting contest is the newest addition to the annual Insect Zoo hosted by the UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences entomology department. Now in its 24th year, the zoo’s organizers decided it was time to send things hopping.
Cricket spitting started at Purdue University in 1996 when entomology professor Tom Turpin added the competition to the annual Bug Bowl event there. In 1998, Dan Capps from Madison, Wis., set the current Guinness World Record with a cricket spit of 32 feet and a half inch.
UGA entomology program coordinator Marianne Robinette plans to invite Guinness officials to the 2010 insect zoo. She’s hoping a Georgian will set the world record.
For an amateur, Friedman came close.
“My second cricket reached 31.55 feet,” he said. “I would say it was pretty miraculous, almost like a hole in one, but more like an eagle on a par five.”
In addition to reaching the farthest distance, Friedman’s brown house cricket had to land intact – with six legs, four wings and two antennas. And, he had 20 seconds to accomplish this feat.
Robinette was in charge of the rules and regulations for the contest and making sure the crickets were sterilized.
“We soaked them in alcohol, rinsed them in water and froze them,” she said.
Friedman plans to put his honor and his newly gained insect knowledge to use in the future.
“I’ll be the coolest dad in the world because I will know everything about bugs,” he said. “Or if I am ever lost in the wild, I may know what can or can’t harm me, or what I may or may not eat.”
By Stephanie Schupska
University of Georgia
Stephanie Schupska is a news editor with the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.
-----
www.fayettefrontpage.com
Fayette Front Page
www.georgiafrontpage.com
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Follow us on Twitter: @GAFrontPage
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