Isn't that amazing?

That extraordinary sound is coming from a cloud of winged insects called cicadas.

It's the males that produce these sounds using structures on their bodies called tymbals.

A pair of tymbals are found on the underside of the cicada's body, one on each side of

its abdomen, which is the main body section just behind the head.

Now insects don't have an internal skeleton like we do, instead they have a hard outer

covering called an exoskeleton, and the tymbals are part of this exoskeleton.

Such tymbal is made up of a thin membrane, which connects thicker sections known as ribs,

each one of which is thinner than a human hair.

To produce sound, a specialized muscle pulls all the tymbal ribs inwards and together.

The ribs make a short, sharp sound when they draw together like this, and again when

they snap apart.

The cicada repeats this action somewhere in the region of 300 to 400 times a second.

These very fast repeating clicks produce to our ears a buzzing sound.

It's also thought that the sound waves of each tymbal combine to make the sound even louder.

In some species of cicada, the male abdomen is largely hollow and acts as a sort of chamber

which amplifies the sound.

This essentially makes the buzzing even louder.

These sounds can be used as a warning call or to attract female mates.

Some cicadas can produce sounds which are over 100 decibels, which by the way is louder

than an approaching subway train.

For all that racket, you could say that these insects have a lot to sing about.

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