The Phantom Leaf-III
I composed this leaf, moving in gentle breeze, hung by spider silk. The moving leaf and the misty forest with intense sounds
of the cicadas (a kind of insect capable of producing loud sounds) altogether, reflected an unusual atmosphere to me.
My experience
It was around 1.30pm in the afternoon, I was heading towards Siliguri down the Pankhabari road. Way down Kurseong, my car was moving slowly through densely built-up fog. It seemed we were approaching late afternoon, as if the day light was about to vanish soon. Suddenly I started hearing an extremely loud noise. I stopped the car and got down to have one of my rarest experiences in life. I heard some extremely loud uncanny sounds piercing the ghostly forests around tea gardens. My driver, a local resident, pointed me out some insects climbing atop tall trees. He told me the name of those insects in local term, which later I came to know as cicadas. I spent almost half an hour to experience the mysterious call of a forest that I haven’t heard before.
Sounds of the cicadas
The cicadas are a superfamily, the Cicadoidea, of insects in the order Hemiptera. Cicadas have an incredible lifecycle of which most of the time their dormant stages spent for years underground. While cicadas are well-known for sound production via abdominal tymbal organs, it has been demonstrated that some species can produce sounds via stridulation, as well, like the crickets do. Cicadas are probably the loudest insects on the planet. This super family of crickets climb up into the trees in thousands, shed off their exoskeletons, and multiple males start producing blasting of sounds, spreading miles to attract females. They are unique in producing sounds of varied frequencies, pitches and qualities from time to time, as the signature of sexual call. When perform chorus, they together produce the loudest sound piercing the silence of a forest. They are amazing musical instruments of the nature.
May listen a wonderful scientific presentation: www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEHbY-ZkzVo
The Phantom Leaf-III
I composed this leaf, moving in gentle breeze, hung by spider silk. The moving leaf and the misty forest with intense sounds
of the cicadas (a kind of insect capable of producing loud sounds) altogether, reflected an unusual atmosphere to me.
My experience
It was around 1.30pm in the afternoon, I was heading towards Siliguri down the Pankhabari road. Way down Kurseong, my car was moving slowly through densely built-up fog. It seemed we were approaching late afternoon, as if the day light was about to vanish soon. Suddenly I started hearing an extremely loud noise. I stopped the car and got down to have one of my rarest experiences in life. I heard some extremely loud uncanny sounds piercing the ghostly forests around tea gardens. My driver, a local resident, pointed me out some insects climbing atop tall trees. He told me the name of those insects in local term, which later I came to know as cicadas. I spent almost half an hour to experience the mysterious call of a forest that I haven’t heard before.
Sounds of the cicadas
The cicadas are a superfamily, the Cicadoidea, of insects in the order Hemiptera. Cicadas have an incredible lifecycle of which most of the time their dormant stages spent for years underground. While cicadas are well-known for sound production via abdominal tymbal organs, it has been demonstrated that some species can produce sounds via stridulation, as well, like the crickets do. Cicadas are probably the loudest insects on the planet. This super family of crickets climb up into the trees in thousands, shed off their exoskeletons, and multiple males start producing blasting of sounds, spreading miles to attract females. They are unique in producing sounds of varied frequencies, pitches and qualities from time to time, as the signature of sexual call. When perform chorus, they together produce the loudest sound piercing the silence of a forest. They are amazing musical instruments of the nature.
May listen a wonderful scientific presentation: www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEHbY-ZkzVo