Katydid's Ancient Song

In China, a 165-million-year-old fossil of a Jurassic era katydid, Archaboilus musicus, was unearthed. Its wings were so well preserved that scientists have been able to analysis them and recreate the sound they produced. The insect was about 4” long with wings about 2.7” long. The male’s wings are designed to be sound generators. One edge had a row of teeth like a file. The other was designed like a scraper. When the wings are closed, the teeth are rubbed against the scraper to produce a sound, which is amplified by the wing membranes. Modern day katydids are designed similarly and use their call to lure a mate. By comparing the wings against 59 modern day katydids, scientists were able to determine they produced a high-frequency tone similar to modern day crickets. To determine how often they sang, scientists compared the fossil to present day Malaysian katydids that are about the same size and live on an island without bats. To avoid bats, most katydids have evolved a lower frequency sound sung at a slower rate. Jurassic katydids did not have to deal with the later evolving bats. From this they theorized that the ancient katydid sang out a few times every second. From these findings and other fossils, the high-frequency calls may go back to the Triassic period 250 – 200 million years ago. This study was published Feb 6, 2012 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences. Live Science web-site has posted this image and the sound. To hear it: Click Here. (Image: Lillian Castano-R & Fernado Monealegre-Z (2012)