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Locusts (derived from the Latin locusta, locust or lobster [1]) are various species of short-horned grasshoppers in the family Acrididae that have a swarming phase. These insects are usually solitary, but under certain circumstances they become more abundant and change their behaviour and habits, becoming gregarious .
Locusts are highly mobile, and usually fly with the wind at a speed of about 15 to 20 kilometres per hour (9.3 to 12.4 mph). Swarms can travel 5 to 130 km or more in a day. Locust swarms can vary from less than one square kilometre to several hundred square kilometres with 40 to 80 million individuals per square kilometre.
The desert locust is a species of orthopteran in the family Acrididae, subfamily Cyrtacanthacridinae. [2] There are two subspecies, one called Schistocerca gregaria gregaria, the better known and of huge economic importance, located north of the equator, and the other, Schistocerca gregaria flaviventris, [9] [10] which has a smaller range in south-west Africa and is of less economic importance ...
Locust swarms had infested 23 countries by April 2020. East Africa was the epicenter of the locust crisis—with Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, and Uganda among the affected countries. However, the locusts had traveled far, wiping out crops in Pakistan and damaging farms in Yemen, a fragile country already hit hard by years of conflict.
A bystander in Al Khobar, Saudi Arabia, captured the moment when swarms of locusts coated the sky above him on Feb. 21. According to National Geographic, locusts are sometimes solitary insects ...
A mathematical model of locust swarms could help in the development of new strategies to control their devastating migration.
Swarming in locusts has been found to be associated with increased levels of serotonin which causes the locust to change colour, eat much more, become mutually attracted, and breed much more easily. Researchers propose that swarming behaviour is a response to overcrowding and studies have shown that increased tactile stimulation of the hind ...
When food and climatic conditions are favourable, huge swarms of locusts may develop. The first recorded swarm was in 1844, with further outbreaks from the 1870s onward. After 1900, the intensity and frequency of locust swarms increased, and since the 1920s, a pattern has developed of localised, high-density populations in some locations most ...