Field Guide to Grasshoppers, Katydids, and Crickets of the United States

All angle-wing katydids (genus Microcentrum) have the forewings curved more sharply along the top then the bottom, and the distance between the antennal sockets is 1 to 2 times the width of the basal antennal segment. Hind femora do not reach the rear one-fourth of the forewings. Ovipositors are short and upturned. The front margin of the pronotum has a slight, median, forward-projecting tooth. The area immediately in front of the male's stridulatory vein is green. 

Males of this species produce two songs: a loud lisp repeated every 2-4 s and a series of ticks that sounds much like someone slowly running the thumbnail along the teeth of a pocket comb. Each lisp lasts less than 0.1 s and is made by a rapid stroke of the file. Each tick series, lasting 3-5 s, is also made by a stroke of the file, but this time the stroke is so slow that 20 to 35 individual tooth impacts are heard as ticks. Lisps attract distant females, and ticks elicit answering ticks from nearby females, allowing males to close the final distance. Length is 52-63 mm.