Oecanthus niveus
This adult male is singing using a baffle hole in an apple tree. This tree also contained a nice population of Two-spotted tree crickets, who are well-known to create these holes to amplify their song by cutting down on sound loss from the edges of their small wings. Narrow-winged tree crickets have not yet been witnessed as making these holes….perhaps this male has simply taken advantage of an already made hole.
More often, this species can be seem using natural notches in leaves ….
… or between two side by side leaves.
The event captured in this next photo was the most profound result from the use of a baffle that I have personally witnessed. This tree cricket was at least 30 feet above ground, and the leaf where he was singing was situated in a small dome shaped area which was completely surrounded by thick canopy. Also note the positions of the hole’s surrounding leaves. The sound was so loud, I would have expected the tree cricket to be only two feet away….yet I was standing on a paved road. It took me quite a while to find him.
Note the translucent appearance with blackened areas of the distal portion of the hind limbs.
Note the thick white circles on the side of the abdomen. Only Narrow-winged and Davis’ have these large thick whitish circles.
Males have relatively narrow wings – extending just a bit beyond the sides f their abdomen. Females’ wings hug the sides of the abdomen.
To see the original description for this species: https://books.google.com/books?id=emJNAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false