Identification
Reddish-brown head and foreparts, usually fading to pale yellowish toward rear. Female has two elongated blackish spots on tegmen (forewings). Hind tibiae do not have spines. Basal segment of antenna has a blunt tooth on the outer side.
Young instars frequently pose in this position with their abdomen pointed upwards.
4th stage
In this photo, the wings 'packets' are shorter, and do not have the pinkish color with dark spots.
This 5th stage instar shows wings encased in the exoskeleton. It will undergo one more molt before reaching adulthood.
Adult females have two large dark spots on their 'back'.
Adult males do not have the large dark spots on their 'back'.
Two-spotted male tree crickets chew holes into leaves which they then place their wings up against while singing. The leaf becomes an extension of their wings - to amplify their sound.
This view shows the male with his head through the hole and his wings positioned flush against the hole.
Neoxabea bipunctata couples hang from a branch and flail about as the male sings and the female feeds from the metanotal gland.
Females
oviposit in small branches -- this female has her ovipositor deep inside an apple tree branch.
Habitat
Deciduous woodlands, edges; adults attracted to artificial light
Two-spotted Tree Cricket, can be found on a wide variety of vegetation including (but not restricted to): Grapevine, Sunflower, Maple Tree, White Pine Tree, Apple Tree, Post Oak Tree. They are generally high on tall plants or in trees.
Season
August-September (Michigan), July-September (North Carolina)
5 August to 15 October (Ontario; photos by Robin McLeod)
Food
Presumably feeds on plants.
Life Cycle
Males sing mostly at night: a 10-second trill followed by several seconds of silence, then a trill again.
Song. After mating, male hangs downward from foliage, allowing female to hang on beneath and dine on secretions from his
thorax (2).
Click on an image to view the life cycle:
Male 
Female 
Remarks
A great source for 'everything you ever wanted to know about tree crickets' is an article written in May 1915 by Bentley B. Fulton in a Technical Bulletin for the New York Agricultural Experiment Station.
The Tree Crickets of New York: Life History and Bionomics
Another species of wasp with tree cricket prey -
Print References
Eaton and Kaufman, pp. 82-83, photos of male, female
(2)
Internet References
Singing Insects of North America--live adult and juvenile images, drawings, distribution map, and calling songs (U. of Florida); link updated 1/15/18
Oecanthinae--Photographs and information about Tree Crickets
