Cicadas use membrane vibrations to make sounds. The structure of the articulator is divided into two chambers, large and small. There are pleated membranes and mirror membranes in the large chamber, and the small chamber is located on the inside of the body, with an tympanic membrane inside. When the muscles on the insect's body wall contract, it vibrates the tympanic membrane and makes sounds. With the help of the mirror membrane and the reaction of the singing chamber, the sound is extremely loud. .

The calls of cicadas are different in different places (people have dialects, and so do cicadas): the most familiar one is "Zhi-Liao, Zhi-Liao" so the cicada is also called ZhiLiao