https://phys.org/news/2018-08-summer-noisy-crickets-fainter.html > Hiding in the vegetation, he is also surrounded by a silent audience of other males. Those "sneakier" males do not sing themselves, but will try to intercept females as they approach a singing rival. It is this dramatic scene that plays out as we hear the crickets and grasshoppers calling on warm evenings. Or at least it did. > Because the crooning of the crickets has quietened in recent years and may be becoming a thing of the past. There is strong evidence that large numbers of crickets and grasshoppers (known, along with mantises, earwigs and cockroaches as the "Orthoptera") are declining across Europe. A 2017 review of European species showed that over 30% of the 1,000 European species were in decline while only 3% were increasing. As with many insects, we simply don't know what is happening to most of the rest.