QR Trail

QR Code

NATL QR Trail: Songs of Crickets
and Katydids

Station 1: A New Kind of Trail

Thank you for visiting the QR (Quick Response) Trail. If you did not have a QR Reader you can still enjoy the trail.

Each station is represented below and has the sound you would have heard if you were scanning the QR code (like the one pictured here) on the trail. The QR code to the right is the song of the Buckell's grig (Cyphoderris buckelli). Learn more about this katydid HERE

Station 2: Most Complex Song

Most insect songs become repetitious quickly, but a group known as "virtuoso katydids" (e.g., Amblycorypha longinicta) have songs that last for many seconds before they repeat.
Visit the species page
Listen to the song

Station 3: Raucous Woodland Chorus

The songs of Common True Katydids (Pterophylla camellifolia) are hard to ignore when many males call at once during summer nights in north Florida woodlands.  Like other singing insects they call to attract the nearly mute females.
Visit the species page
Listen to the song

Station 4: Trilling Field Cricket

Experts have difficulty identifying specimens of the locally common black field crickets, but even a child can recognize them by their songs. The Southeastern Field Cricket (Gryllus rubens) produces a near-continuous sound (a “trill”).
Visit the species page
Listen to the song

Station 5: Chirping Field Cricket

Experts have difficulty identifying specimens of the locally species of common black field crickets, but even a child can recognize them by their songs. The Sand Field Cricket (Gryllus firmus) is the one that produces a series of discrete chirps.
Visit the species page
Listen to the song

Station 6: Insect Amplifiers

Mole crickets, like moles, are specialized for burrowing and spend nearly all their time underground.  Before males of the Southern Mole Cricket (Neoscapteriscus borellii) call, they construct a special burrow that amplifies their song and projects it upward--where females may be flying.
Visit the species page
Listen to the song

Last Station: Keep on Learning

For more information: Visit our species pages where you will find song samples of longer duration and greater variety than are offered here. You will also find distribution maps, multiple images (in color and black-and-white), references, and more.


Help us make better trails by answering a few quick questions.

NEW QR Signs around NATL

The Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis) is a common bird in NATL and in many yards and neighborhoods! You can see and hear Northern Cardinals in many locations.
Listen to the song

We have released the Northern Bobwhite (Colinus virginianus) in NATL. Be on the lookout (and listen) for them!
Listen to the song

If you look around the water’s edge, you may see a  Little Blue Heron (Egretta caerulea) hunting for a meal.
Listen to the song

Be on the lookout for other QR enhanced signs in NATL, you never know where one will show up!