The loudest animal in existence makes sounds with its penis

What’s happened loudest animal in the world? Elephant? Lion? Is your neighbor the one who moves furniture at dawn? The one who runs marathons in high heels? The one who plays marbles in the middle of the night? Okay, these aren’t balloons. But it doesn’t matter, the loudest animal in the world is not your neighbor. Not a large mammal. And it’s not an insect with a thunderous sound, like a cicada. But it’s an insect. Very small.

It’s about water boatman (Micronecta scholzi). It is logical that the roar of a lion next to us will be heard more loudly than the sound of this animal, which in addition makes a squeak. inside the water. But it is considered the loudest animal in the world, if you take into account in proportion to its size. measure alone two millimeters and in the most extreme cases its sound can exceed 90 decibels. The authors of the 2011 study that discovered this sound compared it to what we hear in first row of the concert.

All this is surprising, but the most curious thing is that the waterman does not play either the electric guitar or the drums. He makes these high-pitched sounds with his penis, rubbing it against his stomach. This marriage ritualto attract a partner. Interestingly, we urge readers of this article not to try to reproduce the sounds of a boatman. It’s harder than it seems.

The curious instrument of the world’s loudest animal

The sounds made by a boatman are called stridulation. This is the effect that occurs when an animal makes sounds when rub some parts of your body. It is usually associated with insects such as cicadas. They make their annoying and summery sound. inflating and deflating airbags located in the stomach. They don’t use the penis. Perhaps their sound is more striking than that of a water boatman because they make it on land. On the other hand, this small animal produces stridulation from water, so that a significant part of the sound is lost when passing into the air.

That’s why the authors of the 2011 study initially thought the sound was coming from another animal. Something more like a cicada. But no. He’s a boatman rubs his tiny penis on the stomach to attract nearby partners. Live in freshwater ponds and lakes from almost all of Europe, so many of us may have heard them and not recognized them.

Noisier than a freight train

When these scientists, who come from University of Strathclydein the United Kingdom and Paris Museum of Natural HistoryThey determined where these sounds came from and began to measure their intensity. They found that, on average, the loudest animal in the world produces a sound intensity 78.9 decibels. This is comparable to what some freight trains produce.

But this is just an average. In some cases they were found almost 100 decibels sound. This is what scientists compared to the front row at a concert. rock music. It is logical that this sound would greatly disturb us, but the water muffles it. However, scientists are surprised by how far this stridulation goes in such a small space. What is biology. There are millions of data points about the sound of this insect, which surprises scientists more than the fact that it makes it with its penis. To be honest, we have seen stranger things in nature.