''Brachystola magna'', the plains lubber grasshopper, western lubber grasshopper or homesteader, is a large species of

grasshopper Grasshoppers are a group of insects belonging to the suborder Caelifera. They are among what is possibly the most ancient living group of chewing herbivorous insects, dating back to the early Triassic around 250 million years ago. Grasshopp ...

in the family Romaleidae, native to open and semi-open habitats of central and southern United States and northern Mexico. Adults are typically long, with females growing larger than males. It is reddish brown with black dots on its outer wings, however there is some variation in coloration, with more northern variants tending to be greener, and southern ones more brownish-buff. ''Brachystola magna'' has extremely small wings and is unable to fly. The antennae are bluish-brown and the legs are reddish near the body with purple tarsi. It has a ridge along the upper and middle region of the abdomen. It is distinguished from '' Brachystola virescens'' by its longer antennae and color. In

Wyoming Wyoming () is a U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho to the west, Utah to the south ...

it is found on gravelly ground in the southwest of the state. It does not cause significant damage to crops, and seems to prefer coarse broadleaved plants to crops. It overwinters in the egg, which hatch in the spring and reach adulthood in August.

Walter Sutton Walter Stanborough Sutton (April 5, 1877 – November 10, 1916) was an American geneticist and physician whose most significant contribution to present-day biology was his theory that the Mendelian laws of inheritance could be applied to chrom ...

's description of reduction division was based on studying the

spermatocyte Spermatocytes are a type of male gametocyte in animals. They derive from immature germ cells called spermatogonia. They are found in the testis, in a structure known as the seminiferous tubules. There are two types of spermatocytes, primary and s ...

s of ''Brachystola magna''. This work was critical in the development of the chromosome theory of inheritance.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q10434488 Romaleidae Orthoptera of North America Insects described in 1854