Animalia, Arthropoda,
Insecta, Orthoptera
Anatomy of a Cricket
Cricket
Navigation - finding their way around - is a challenging problem for robots
but crickets have inspired computer scientists at the University of Stirling
to come up with a new way for robots to do it. Female crickets can find
male crickets by homing in on the song they sing. A cricket's ears are
actually in their front legs. Sounds arrive at the ears, which being on the
legs are as far a part as is possible in a cricket. The legs act as long tubes
down which waves of pressure pass as a result of the sound waves hitting
them. A sound on one side of the cricket arrives at the ear on that side
sooner than the other ear. This turns into a different amount of pressure in
the tubes on either side of the crickets head. The cricket's brain can work
out locations from the pressure differences, telling the cricket where the
sound is coming from.
 The Stirling researchers have created a similar mechanism to work in
robots allowing them to navigate towards sounds. It uses an artificial brain
that works in a similar way to a cricket's to turn the pressure signals from
the sound into the knowledge of where to go. It uses what is known as a
neural network - a computer version of the neurons in biological brains.

Cricket
Small, nocturnal animal
 Long back legs & long feelers
 Similar to grasshoppers, but they have
short feelers
 Male crickets chirp to attract mates
 Omnivores
 Cold-blooded
 Ears(tympanic membranes)on their legs

Insect Eating/Entomophagy

Crickets are considered a delicacy in Asia
& Africa
Cricket Pad Thai















INGREDIENTS
• 8 to 10 ounces dried rice stick noodles
• 6 tablespoon fish sauce
• 2 tablespoon soy sauce
• 6 tablespoon lime juice
• 4 teaspoons organic sugar)
• 4 tablespoon peanut oil
• 1 cup crickets (prepared properly)
• 3 to 4 cloves garlic
• 3 eggs lightly beaten
• 0.5 cup finely chopped scallions
• 2 cup bean sprouts
• 0.25 cup crushed peanuts
• 0.5 cup fresh cilantro
• 1 lime cut into wedges to serve to each person
Food Value of Crickets










100 grams of cricket
121 calories
12.9 grams of protein5.5g of fat
5.1g of carbohydrates
75.8 mg calcium 185.3 mg of phosphorous
9.5 g of iron
O.36 mg of thiamin
1.09mg riboflavin
3.10mg of niacin
(Crickets have a better feed to meat ratio
than any other animal)
Did you know?
Crickets are popular pets.
 Crickets are used for fighting as a
gambling pastime.
 Crickets are considered good luck in Asia
& if you are Pinocchio
 Crickets in folklore are a sign of impeding
rain or of a financial windfall.
 Cricket is a game.
 Cricket is the name for a harmonica.

Cricket chirping
Male wings have a rough surface (file) on
under side and the top of the wing has a
scrapper.
 Males rub their wings together
(stridulation).
 Stridulation is species-specific.
 There are 4 types of song- calling,
aggressive, courting & copulating.

Link to U tube chirping
Now let’s do some cricket math
If the crickets aren't chirping inside your house, maybe you should turn up the
heat. Crickets usually don't chirp when the temperature's below 55 degrees (F).
Above 55, you can count the number of chirps made in a 15 second period and
add 40 to find the temperature inside your house*. Considering the price of
fuel this coming winter, reducing the number of cricket chirps will provide
extra motivation to conserve and will save you money.
*This is A.E.Dolbear's formula - he was a Physics professor at Tuft's College in
1897.You really need to find out what kind of crickets you have if you want the
precise temperature:
Field Cricket: T = 50 + (N – 40) / 4
Snowy Tree Cricket: T = 50 + (N – 92) / 4.7
Katydid: T = 60 + (N – 19) / 3
For all three, T is the temperature and N is the number of chirps per minute.
Handouts
Cricket math
 Functional response of the Venus flytrap

http://wwwrohan.sdsu.edu/~jmahaffy/courses/s00a/math12
1/labs/laba/q3v1.htm