It is incredibly loud. The one I recorded here was probably 200--300 meters away. One landed on my deck and I couldn't hear the television even with the windows closed. I tried to photograph it but it flew away just as I got the camera ready. It was a flying beetle, about two and a half inches long. The volume is fully equivalent to a model airplane engine, and the first time I heard it I was convinced that that was what it was.
Wikipedia says that some species of cicada produce sound in excess of 120 dB. That's enough to cause permanent hearing damage! So if what I heard and saw was some sort of cicada, that must have been it.
Two nights ago I found the beetle shown below in the photograph sitting in the road, apparently too tired to fly. (It has lacy wings that extend out from under its carapace). I picked it up, and it was incredibly strong, it grasped my fingers so tightly it actually was painful. It was content to hold onto my hand until I got home, so I was able to get some photographs of it. It looks like it might be the same kind of insect that I heard and almost got a picture of last month, but I can't be sure, it was dark then.
Does anybody know what this is?
tanstaafl.
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