Like others of its family they have short wings, suck plant sap and escape by leaping.

The species shows great sexual dimorphism.

The males of this half centimeter-long insect have an enlarged lobe in front of its head, the frons or metope, giving it an ant-like appearance.

The species is found mainly on low vegetation in open scrub and grass habitats.

It has been suggested, based on the Afro-Indian distribution, that the ancestral species of this and other genera, Chirodisca and Rhinogaster, evolved in Eurasia and spread to Africa 5-7 million years ago when the Tethys sea closed and thus their ancestors would have been part of the late Miocene Hipparion fauna.