Cicada's calls are surprisingly loud, especially coming from such a small insect, which is why researchers for the U.S army are looking into how their sounds can help with underwater communication and remote sensing, according to Live Science.
The insects have an interesting lifestyle, they live underground for 17 years and only crawl out of the Earth to mate at the end of their lives.
For the short period of time that they are above ground, they emit booming mating calls that can reach 100 decibels which be extremely disruptive to humans, but have scientists fascinated.
The call comes from vibrations in the cicada's tymbals, which are "ribbed drum-like plates" on the insect's exoskeleton. They're able to deform their bodies in a way that makes it possible for their anatomy to vibrate.
Derke Hughes, a researcher at the Naval Undersea Warfare Center claimed that if a human body had this feature it would look quite different. There would be thick muscles on either side of the body that would squeeze the chest, causing the ribs to move one at a time. The muscles would be able to release, allowing the ribcage to return to its normal shape.
Hughes claimed the squeezing and releasing of the muscles is basically what is happening when the cicadas are making that unmistakable sound. Cicada's perform that movement about 300 to 400 times a second.
Scientists understand how the sound is made, but learning how to artificially recreate the process is a whole new challenge.
Hughes is currently in the process of creating a physics-based model that will display how the cicada makes it's mating call. The model will help scientists figure out how to create the sound, which would take very little power while producing a big result. The research could help aid in military operations such as ship-to-ship communication and rescue missions.
The team has made other breakthroughs regarding cicadas in the past. They discovered that a male's call gets quieter as he approaches a potential mate. Hughes compared this to using a "bedroom voice."
