Romalea

Adult stage (bottom) and nymph stage (top)

R. microptera grows through several stages, like all insects. When in the nymph stage, it is smaller than in the adult stage, wingless, and completely black with one or more yellow, orange, or red stripes. In the adult stage, it reaches 2.5–3 in (64–76 mm), grows wings half the length of its body, and become either a dull yellow often characterized by black spots and markings, a bright orange with black markings, or entirely black (as in the nymph stage) with yellow or red striping. In the black adult color phase, the grasshopper is widely known by the name "diablo" or "black diablo". In Louisiana, they are known as the "devil's horse" or cheval-diable. The insect is also colloquially known as a "graveyard grasshopper". In Mississippi, they are known as the "giant locust".[4]

R. microptera inhabits regions west of North Carolina to Tennessee, in Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Texas, and throughout Florida, Missouri, and Arizona. They live in open pinewoods, weedy vegetation, and weedy fields. [1]

This species can reach nearly 3 in (76 mm) in size. Their wings are rarely half the length of the abdomen; most of the time, they are much smaller, and cannot be used for flight.[1]

Eastern lubber grasshopper expanding its wings

R. microptera has several defense strategies. The first is its brightly colored pattern (aposematism) to warn predators that it is unpleasant eating. The second is that it emits a foul-smelling and foul-tasting, foamy secretion from its thorax when it is disturbed. The secretion is dark colored and opaque. The final strategy is that it lets off a loud hissing sound which can scare animals.[1]

A quantitative analysis of the distribution of tritium labeled DNA among chromosomes during meiosis in Romalea microptera led to the conclusion that most exchanges reflected breakage and reciprocal exchange between (non-sister) homologous chromatids.[5]

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  Female eastern lubber grasshopper (R. microptera) in Everglades National Park, Florida
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  Close-up of R. microptera from the Everglades
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  Nymph R. microptera with its characteristic black and yellow-striped body
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  Lubber grasshopper, Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge, Delray, Florida
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  Adult dark morph, University of Mississippi Field Station
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  R. microptera, Fort Myers, Florida
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  R. microptera at Bear Island Campground in the Big Cypress National Preserve

• Media related to Romalea microptera at Wikimedia Commons
• Sarah Sue Goldsmith (May 4, 1999). "Black grasshoppers munch their way across South Louisiana". Louisiana State University.