Handsome Trig

Description:

Phyllopalpus pulchellus - Red-headed Bush Cricket, also known as the Handsome Trig. I found this crawling on a bridge railing in the sun. Length, about 7 mm. I believe this is a male. Those large palpi are something else--they look like clubs or fans.To me, this cricket has always looked weird. The bold pattern strikes me as mimicry of something with chemical armament. Those palps are weird, too, and (aha!) I realize they remind me of beetle mandibles. The female has wings very convex, shiny, and beetle-like. Double-aha, this cricket is, perhaps, a mimic of chemically-defended ground beetles, such as the Bombardier Beetles, Brachinus.