Hi Richard, females of Photuris frontalis complex (this is likely Photuris billbrowni) in Texas exhibit this pronotal coloration and pronotal pattern. When I first discovered this, it was perplexing to me too, but I had numerous live examples of male and females who mated successfully in same location. Further field study has also resulted in numerous confirmations of this from many Photuris billbrowni locations across Texas. The morphology also points to Photuris frontalis complex. The lantern is consistent with females of Photuris billbrowni.

This specimen in UTIC in Austin was among other males from same location and same collection event. So its reasonable to assume its from same population. If it was another species of Photuris, it would have likely be Photuris katrinae or something in versicolor complex. It would distinctively be able to separate it based on size, flash, coloration, etc.

Thanks for this explanation, Ben.

I didn't realize that Photuris billbrowni and Photuris katrinae were found so far east in TX, since the maps in Lloyd 2018 are based on relatively few sites.

So there have been observations of males that look like this (https://bugguide.net/node/view/1281164) mating with females with the appearance of this specimen?

Lloyd's sampling leaves a lot of be desired at times here in Texas. He didn't get to most parts of Texas and I would only rely on his maps as partial.

Yes, males that look like that mate with females with appearance of that female. Females always look like that in my experience.

One note: That Caddo lake male specimens I did the Det work on and it can only be determined to complex level. It is possible its Photuris frontalis. It has some morphology that is a little different than P. billbrowni, and I couldn't 100% label it P. billbrowni without flash pattern record which would definitely determine it's species. So that is why I had Mike Quinn photograph it. I will need to take a look again one day.