We have a lot of house crickets in our apartment, mostly to feed our voracious praying mantises, but also just because they populate our balcony terrariums and make a pleasing sound. We buy them at the local vivarium, which gets them from an enormous “cricket farm” somewhere in California’s Central Valley.
Male crickets stridulate by rubbing their forewings together, rather than rubbing a leg on their abdomen or in some other way, as some grasshoppers and katydids do. Here are some closeups of one of our crickets playing his music.
A closeup view of the cricket’s wings.
A slow motion video of the cricket’s stridulation.
Steven E. F. Brown 