Stridulation

3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Stridulation \Strid`u*la"tion\, n.
     The act of stridulating. Specifically: (Zool.)
     (a) The act of making shrill sounds or musical notes by
         rubbing together certain hard parts, as is done by the
         males of many insects, especially by Orthoptera, such as
         crickets, grasshoppers, and locusts.


     (b) The noise itself.
         [1913 Webster]
  
     Note: The crickets stridulate by rubbing together the strong
           nervures of the fore wings. Many grasshoppers
           stridulate by rubbing the hind legs across strong
           nervures on the fore wings. The green grasshoppers and
           katydids stridulate by means of special organs at the
           base of the fore wings.
           [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  stridulation
       n : a shrill grating or chirping noise made by some insects by
           rubbing body parts together

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  20 Moby Thesaurus words for "stridulation":
     animal noise, bark, barking, birdcall, call, chirk, chirking,
     chirp, chirrup, clang, creak, crick, cry, grunt, howl, howling,
     mating call, note, ululation, woodnote