Just in case you wanted another example of evolutionary diversity in Hawaii, how about 227 crickets? In 1994, Dr. Daniel Otte, a world expert on crickets and grasshoppers, published The Crickets of Hawaii. He found at least 227 crickets native to Hawaii. Almost all are endemic, and most were new to science. Because the Hawaiian islands are isolated and have so many ecological niches to fill, the forces of evolution had a rich opportunity to diversify all the birds, plants, fish and insects that landed here, including a few tiny crickets.
People are familiar with grasshoppers, mostly because they see them during the day. This is one of the ways you can distinguish grasshoppers from crickets. Crickets are generally nocturnal. Another way is the length of their antennae. Crickets have very long antennae; grasshoppers’ are shorter. And then there is the singing, or chirping or just making noise at night. By scraping their wings together, these insects are able to call for a mate. Or not! Several years ago, crickets on Kaua’i made news when they stopped singing in order to avoid a predator using their call to locate them. Their wings had evolved so they no longer made a noise. A few years later, the same evolutionary tactic appeared on Oahu.
On the Big Island, our crickets can still be heard singing. One of the joys of living in the country is falling asleep to the soothing sound of chirping crickets. Just crack your window open and let nature’s white-noise send you off.
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