Researchers suggest that high levels of background noise may affect the grasshoppers' mating process.
They say the insects are forced to increase the volume of the low-frequency sections of their call.
Results of the study, by scientists from the University of Bielefeld, Germany, are published in the journal Functional Ecology.
The research, which shows traffic noise could upset bow-winged grasshoppers' (Chorthippus biguttulus) mating system, is the first of its kind, according to lead researcher Ulrike Lampe.
"Effects of man-made noise on acoustic communication has only been studied with vertebrates, so far," said Ms Lampe, a PhD student at the University of Bielefeld's Department of Evolutionary Biology.
The scientists caught 188 male bow-winged grasshoppers from noisy roadsides and quiet rural locations.
According to Ms Lampe: "Bow-winged grasshoppers are a good model organism to study sexual selection because females can respond to male courtship songs with their own low-frequency acoustic signal, if they are attracted to a male song."
The grasshoppers produce their mating call by rubbing a toothed file on their hind-legs against a protruding vein that is located on their front wings.
The male's song consists of short phrases of two to three seconds that increase in amplitude towards the end. The first part of the call comprises slower ticking sounds that increase in speed and amplitude, leading to a buzzing sound towards the end of the phrase.
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