Distinctive appearance. Red head/throrax, pale legs, dark bluish-black forewings. Last segment of palp is black and oval flattened shape. Female forewings are convex similar to beetles. (1) Song (of male) is a "rattling, broken trill" (2), given both day and night.
Left wing of male is clear (2), apparently modified for stridulation.
Range
Southeast U.S. north to Massachusetts, excluding South Florida. (3)
Habitat
Found in vegetation near streams and marshes, about a meter above the ground. (1)
Season
Single generation; adults begin to appear in July/early August. (1)
The color scheme is a match, broadly, and the dark basal antenna segments contribute to the appearance of beetle mandibles. The enlarged tips of the palps, when held up, resemble the dark eyes of the beetle. Folded forewings of female are convex, "beetle-like" (1), and striated.
Another hypothesis, not mutually exclusive, is that the prominent, and mobile, palps represent mimicry of jumping spiders, Salticidae (Naskrecki, 2012).
See Also
Capinera remarks that there are no similar species in the U.S. (1).
