INSECTS can be found everywhere, even in big cities like Shanghai. Most insects like it warm, thus the summer and early autumn are prime times to see, and especially hear, cicadas and crickets around the city.

A male cicada creates a loud clicking sound by quickly vibrating its abdomen. They do this when startled or while trying to attract a mate. Crickets make a chirping sound most commonly heard in the evenings. It has an almost musical quality to it.

Three breeds of cicadas are commonly found in Shanghai. The black cicada, which Shanghai people call ya wu zi, or the king screamer, is the biggest and they usually live in treetops. Budding entomologists may be interested to watch a black cicada pupa emerge into an adult, a process called eclosion. Two weeks after the plum rain season ends, people can witness this process around 8pm to 9pm. Just head to a flower bed or trees near your home and look closely.

Cicadas prefer elm, Chinese ash and paulownia trees, which are usually planted in the city’s older neighborhoods. They also like willow trees and privet shrubs.

Meanwhile, flat-pleuron cicadas usually lay low. They are smaller with black and brown bodies that provide camouflage. They prefer tree trunks or bushes. While they also make that incessant buzzing sound, it’s not nearly as loud as black cicadas.

Another commonly seen breed is the Mongolian cicada. When they click, Chinese say its sounds like re si la, which means “melting with heat” in Mandarin. So on a sunny, hot afternoon, when people hear them, some many say, “See? Even the cicadas are suffering.”

The influence of cicadas goes way back in Chinese culture. The word summer in the Oracle, a pictogram used around 14th century BC in China, looks like a cicada.

“From ancient times, Chinese men of letters regarded the sound of cicadas as a natural gift in summer,” says insect researcher Jin Xingbao, former deputy director of the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum.

“They wrote a lot of poems to praise cicadas. For example, Wang Ji, a poet of the Southern Dynasties (420-589), once wrote ‘the forest is quieter without cicadas chirping’.”

Meanwhile, there are also several idioms about cicadas. The most frequently used is jin chan tuo qiao (金蝉脱壳). It literally means a cicada casting off its skin, which is a metaphor for escaping by a crafty scheme.

Watching a cicada cast off its skin is beautiful. The almost-transparent image breaks through from the muddy shell, and the little wing bud stretches to big, thin, crystal-clear wings.

“Anyone who sees the scene for the first time will be amazed,” says Jin.

Long-horn grasshoppers are easy to spot in Shanghai as vendors sell them in tiny rattan-weaved cages.

After bringing a grasshopper home, people usually hang the cage somewhere and feed it soybeans or vegetable leaves. The problem with grasshoppers is that they usually chirp louder at night. Some put them under a light at night and cover the cage with a black cloth during the daytime to change their living clock.

Grasshoppers usually live between three and five months as they do not like cold weather. Some people feed them live worms to give them more strength, but this, oddly, causes their legs to fall off.

When it comes to fall, crickets become the leading role of insects. In the Oracle, the word autumn looks like a cricket.

In “the Book of Songs,” the earliest collection of poems in China, one poet wrote: “In July they sing in the field; in August they chirp under the eaves; in September, they jump onto the windowsill; and in October, they stay under my bed.”

Jin says ancient Chinese writers often wrote of chirping crickets to express homesickness.

“They called crickets bards in the grass,” he says.

Tree crickets are the most common in Shanghai. They usually lay their long, bright-green bodies under the leaves. But people are more familiar with Japanese burrowing crickets, nicknamed “black-headed generals” because they are used for cricket fights.

Cricket fights date back about 1,000 years in China. Male crickets will fight one another when competing for territory. Crickets eat rice but some people feed them living insects to make them stronger.

In the 1950s and 1960s, cricket fighting was regarded as “old feudal culture” and was banned by the government. But in the 1980s, the hobby returned and official tournaments are now held around the country.

Famous writer Lu Xun once wrote, “The foot of the wall was a place of endless fun. Crickets are singing and playing musical instruments there.

Jin laments that kids these days don’t get many opportunities to explore nature and the wildlife often right in their own backyard.

“Children living in the city now can hardly feel the fun anymore,” Jin says.

“Our museum once held summer camps for children to look for insects in the field, and they loved it. I believe we need more green spaces so insects, birds and other wildlife also have a home.” Jin says insects will increase in number quickly if the ground is not covered with concrete or asphalt and pesticide is not abused.

“I have a yard of less than 40 square meters at home in Pudong,” Jin says. “And I have found six different breeds of chirping insects, which means they can survive just fine in this urban environment.”

Apart from the chirpers, other bugs and insects are also active in summer and autumn.

Spotted ladybugs have very bright red and black backs. Feeding on aphids, they are almost everywhere in vegetable fields, but they are harder to find when the temperature drops. They usually conceal themselves in the early morning and at night to lay eggs in corn, turnip and Chinese cabbage fields. Meanwhile, swallowtail butterflies are easy to find even when it’s getting chilly as they reproduce three times a year. The breed has black and dark red wings with a white stripe at the back.

“The Butterfly Lovers” is a famous tragic romance story in China in which Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai transformed into butterflies when there parents would not allow them to marry.

Some say the story has cursed the breed because it’s now difficult for male swallowtail butterflies to find a mate due to a gender imbalance. The females are extremely popular among butterfly collectors.

Compared to butterflies, spiders tend to scare people rather than attract them. But jumping spiders may be an exception as they actually look cute. They have black eyes, a hairy and bright-colored body and relatively short legs. They have four pairs of eyes, and the pair in the middle is especially big, which gives them that cute look.

As the name suggests, jumping spiders are good at leaping. Preying mostly on mosquitoes and flies. They usually wait in the web for prey to get entangled and then leap quickly to devour them. Yummy!

The beady eyes of jumping spiders are very sensitive to ultraviolet rays. Thus when it comes to mating season, jumping spiders crawl off their web and have a “sunbath.” The reflection of ultraviolet light on the body makes them look “sexier” and is the key to attracting the opposite gender.

Chirping insects and where to find them:

Chirping insects don’t require much to live. A grassy area with some trees is often enough.

As long as you are careful enough, it’s easy to observe chirping insects in Shanghai.

Debris and rocks make ideal environments for crickets. You usually hear crickets chirping first, and they can be found if you move the debris or rocks.

Cicadas are harder to find, especially black cicadas, which prefer the tops of trees. Other breeds can be found in bushes, but they usually stay on the backside of leaves and blend in with their surroundings.

Wild grasshoppers are rarely seen in Shanghai and grasshopper vendors are harder to find compared to a decade ago. Flower or bird markets usually have a vendor selling grasshoppers or crickets.

Botanical gardens and forest parks are also great places to observe insects. Chances of spotting insects at Shanghai Botanical Garden, which is open in the evening during the summer, are very high.

1. Casting out the old shell is the most important event in a cicada’s life. If disturbed when emerging from its shell, a cicada will never be able to fly or chirp.

2. In ancient Chinese culture, cicadas were a symbol of eternal life and resurrection.

3. Only male insects chirp as they do it to attract females or claim their territory.

4. Crickets may “commit suicide” because of a parasite in them. The parasite needs water to live and they force grasshoppers to jump into the water.

5. Crickets chirp with their wings. There is a thorn on their right wing and another on the left wing. The friction of the two creates the melodious sound.

6. Crickets and grasshoppers can damage plants.