Scrape a washboard

The moon, lopsided as it was four days past full, dazzled me with its brightness as it rose above the treetops. I enjoyed the cooling air, as I often do, enfolding the scents and sounds of the night. The stridulate of crickets is an interesting chirr made all the more fascinating because of how it is made by amorous males. It seems crickets use the sharp edge at the base of one front wing as a scraper along a file-like ridge on the bottom side of the other front wing. An organic version of the washboard used in hillbilly bands. Their wings lay flat along their body so the scraping requires some contortions, I think. Maybe I don't understand because I have no wings on which to practice.
Though I listen to cricket noises with some fondness I do not wish to imitate their song. Adult Field Crickets - Gryllus spp. - range in size up to one and one quarter inches long and usually are shiny black with "jumping" hind legs. Most chirp and may sing both day and night. I hear them but not with the fourth segment in my front leg as they do. Weird? No, simply an adaption on a head with no space for ears.
Each female lays between 150 to 400 eggs in the fall which hatch as wingless nymphs in the spring. Nymphs molt (shed skin as they grow) eight to nine times and reach adulthood in about 90 days. Good explanation as to why I don't hear them until late summer when they sing to attract mates. I found no evidence of males stridulating until they reach maturity. Maybe the young develop baby chirps but sex is off limits, thank you.
Crickets are omnivores and scavengers feeding on organic materials, as well as decaying plant material, fungi, and seedling plants. Crickets break down plant material, renewing soil minerals. They are also an important source of food for other animals. I've heard of chocolate covered crickets. Some people go to great lengths to get a chocolate fix.
I am content, actually soothed, with the serenade of happy crickets. And in my young life I thought they were only stroking fiddles for the moon.
Naomi Sherer