Wood-cricket, wave propagation in the air (The)

The wood-cricket lives in the leaf litter in our forests. It ' s just a few millimeters long, and moves by walking or jumping. On its own scale, the grass, leaves and dead branches in the undergrowth form an extremely complex three-dimensional universe. The cricket is often hunted by the Pardosa lugubris, or wolf spider, which attacks it by surprise, running on the ground. It ' s been discovered that the cricket can sense the faintest breath of air pushed by the spider during an attack. This sensitivity can sometimes save its life, an exploit that intrigues the scientists…