stridulate

The insects buzzed, whined, hummed, stridulated and droned as the air grew warmer in the sunset.

I may never want to tell a male grasshopper from a female grasshopper; I may never figure out how to pronounce “stridulate,” the special science word for when bugs rub their feet together.

Decrepit, senile, and miserable, Tithonus eventually shrank into a cicada who stridulated ceaselessly, calling out for release.

Insects in Borneo might stridulate loudly at a middle frequency, alternating so as not to drown each other out.

Like crickets and katydids, they can stridulate by rubbing its body parts together to attract a mate or ward off potential predators.