Welcome to Word of the Week! Stay tuned for a new word each week to amp up your nature vocabulary!

Word of the week is Stridulate [strij-uh-leyt] (verb): to make a creaking or chirping noise by rubbing together special bodily structures as certain insects do. Crickets, grasshoppers and katydids are excellent stridulators. Some species of fish, snakes and spiders can stridulate as well. The purpose of stridulation can be territorial, aggression, defense or most often amorous!

Grasshoppers stridulate by rubbing small pegs on the inside of their hind legs against the fore wing to produce a call.