Image: “Palo Verde Root Borer (Derobrachus hovorei). Species of insect,” by Mike Ostrowski, 23 June 2021, in Wikimedia Commons … https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Derobrachus_hovorei.jpg … CC BY-SA 4.0 International
Image: “Palo Verde Root Borer (Derobrachus hovorei). Species of insect,” by Mike Ostrowski, 23 June 2021, in Wikimedia Commons … https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Derobrachus_hovorei.jpg … CC BY-SA 4.0 International
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Dear Ones,
If there is not a sound dubb-in, then is this beetle is speaking English? …
Video: ” Screeching Beetle,” @superdataman, in Youtube Shorts … https://youtube.com/shorts/bxylg7iz2Zg?si=OrWF2St52iZlWSGW ..
I can see the beetle’s mouth parts moving in synch with the sounds it is making. If this is an authentic film, then this is what the beetle is saying as the author pokes it with a stick …
Beetle: Hey! Cut that out! Cut it out! STOP i! STOP! Cut it OUT!
Can you hear the beetle? Do you figure it’s a put-on? Or is it true?
One thing to keep in mind when interpreting the speech of nonhuman animals is this: The way they produce sounds results in sounds very different from the sounds produced by human vocal cords. They may be speaking perfect English, but we might have a very hard time figuring out what they are saying because of the different tonal quality of their speech.
Here, for instance, the beetle sounds very raspy and sharp. Human voices sound more melodious. The voices of songbirds sound more melodious still. And so on.
The sound-producing organs of a nonhuman being might have very limited ability to produce consonant sounds. Or maybe inability to produce vowel sounds. Yet they may still be speaking English words.
To make up for lack of certain sounds, they may employ additional ways of communicating. For instance, a Raven will supplement vocalizations with telepathy. It may express complicated concepts with rapping or knocking sounds. It may express cultural concepts through vocalizations and feather displays and ritual dance.
I ran across a sea lion and some seals yesterday at Point Dume, California. These sea mammals need to overcome the sound of the waves in some way in order to be heard by other sea mammals nearby. There is also the impediment of wind when they try to communicate with the human hikers standing far above them on the cliffs.
The sea lion with which I spoke was on a rock outcrop at some distance from the shore. But I could hear it quite well, because it supplemented its loud vocalizations with telepathy. The young seals frolicking in the waves at Point Dume, California, yesterday did the same.
I don’t know too much about how insects talk yet. Let’s practice! …
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OK, here is a Giant Root Borer. It seems to be saying the same thing when prodded. This one adds: Stop it! Stop it! I can’t take it!
Link: “Screech! Giant Root Borer Beetle,” by raydunakin, 30 April 2015, in youtube … https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0Qo8rvs_G8 ..
Can you hear it talking?
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OK, here is a Brown Prionid Beetle that can talk …
Video: “Talking Beetle? It’s the Brown Prionid – the squeaky beetle!” by Nature Here and Now! – Chris Egnoto, 18 July 2014, in youtube … https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14M6BsT5bnA ..
At timeframe 1:12, when the person begins prodding it, it says: Hey! Hey! You are HURT-ing me! You are HURT-ing me!
Man: OK, stay still.
Beetle: He HURT me … HEY! DON’T hurt me. QUIT it!
Beetle when on screen (anxiously): Don’t hurt me. DON’T HURT ME! You HURT me, dammit! THANK you … very much for not hurting …
Man: Cool!
Video caption: Thank you for watching.
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OK, here is a Cicada …
Video: “The Screaming Cicada,” by Harper’s Playhouse, 1 July 2022, in youtube … https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I20G-rnW030 ..
At the beginning of the video … timeframe 0:10 … the man places the caged Cicada in front of his young daughter. Over and over again the Cicada flies into the net separating it from the child, screaming: The BA-by! Maybe I could eat the BA-by!
Then the little girl takes the Cicada out of the cage and places it in her hand.
Shiver me timbers, mates! I am reminded of how a Cicada attacked me with its piercing-sucking mouthparts once when I was a child.
At timeframe 3:20, when the child takes the Cicada off of her sleeve, the Cicada says: Sh-t! DAM-mit!
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I think I’ll buy one of those extra good sound recorders and see if all this is true. Or maybe I could capture insect sounds with my camcorder?
In love, light and joy
This is Alice B. Clagett.
I Am of the Stars … and so are you!
Written and published on 11 May 2025
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0). Attribution: By Alice B. Clagett.
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interspecies communication, insects, beetles, Ravens, Songbirds, pinnipeds, sea lions, seals,
