Crickets Inspire Stealthy Robots to Fire Rings of Air

New Scientist
March 9, 2011

THERE'S a cave-dwelling cricket that communicates in a most peculiar way: by firing rings of high-pressure air, like invisible smoke rings, at its would-be mate. It's a trick that has inspired a stealthy way for robots to communicate.

Most cricket species chirp by rubbing their forewings together - but not the African cave cricket, Phaeophilacris spectrum. Instead, it repeatedly flings its wings forward to launch doughnut-shaped vortices of air at a would-be mate. A series of four or five of these travelling vortex rings seems to be the signal for the female to prepare for mating. And because the rings are silent, there's no risk of alerting predators to the pair's presence.

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