Auditory response and intrinsic link with sound-production in singing male cicada.

In the black cicada (C. atrata Fabricius), the quiescent males are sensitive to stimulating sound-pulses of about 70 dB (SPL); the latent periods and amplitudes of compound action potentials of the auditory nerve (called "auditory nerve potential (AP)" for short) which are corresponding one by one to stimulating sound-pulses are (3.92 +/-0.