Locusts are certain species of short-horned grasshoppers,they belong to the family of Acrididae and they have a swarming phase. These insects usually exist alone but under certain circumstances, they become more surplus and change their behaviour and habit becoming sociable. They have formed plagues since prehistory. These insects are very famous for their catastrophic invasions,they are mentioned in the Bible as the eighth plague during the Egyptians and Israelites war. They are divided in about 10,000 species also grouped into 10 families. This Biblical locusts are found in the desert and they have been threatening agricultural production in Africa, the middle east and Asia up to India for centuries. Locusts are 7-8 cm (3 inches) long. The males weigh 2.2 grams while the females weighs 3.5 grams. The female locust lay 100 eggs,and the larvae get to the adult state in 15-20 days. There are about 70,000 tons of insects,also several tens of billions of locusts covering 100 square kilometers.
Like humans jumping 18m(60 ft),Locusts too can jump 70cm (2.3 ft). They are closely related to grasshoppers and they have similar look and habits. People cannot differentiate between them but the only way you can recognized them is that Locusts have short antennae while grasshoppers have a very long one. Locusts sings by rubbing their rear feet from elytra while grasshoppers sing by rubbing the elytra between them. They are the first insect that was drawn by humans. This drawing was found in a bison bone,ten thousand years old and was met in a French care.
Locusts are invertebrates insect,they are shy,recluse insect and they prefer to live alone rather than living in groups.
TYPES OF LOCUST
1 AUSTRALIAN PLAGUE LOCUST: These type of locust cause great harm to the agricultural sector and are found in Australia. Their size is about 25 to 45mm and are green and brown in color. They cause harm to crops and plants to a level and effects the young crops by ruining them too.
2 BOMBAY LOCUST: They are found in the south western part of India and they live alone. Their color is green and shed their skin after growing up,they have black spots on their bodies. They exhibit a swarming behaviour causing losses to the growth of crops and plants. They also ruin crops.
3 DESERT LOCUST: This type is found in deserts and they can travel as far as they can to infest crops. They move unto other area and spoil the crops and form swarms.
4 MIGRATORY LOCUST: This type is found in the Southern Asia and they feed on crops like groundnut,maize,coconut, barley,sugarcane and bring a large loss for the farmers.
5 ROCKY MOUNTAIN LOCUST: These are capable of forming the largest swarms and by attacking crops that will make the crops not saved from the harm done to them
6 RED LOCUSTS: These ones looks like grasshoppers and they move in dry season. They have color tone of beige and red color and they infested the crops so bad
Locusts die around winter except for the pygmy locusts. These ones can survive the whole winters and then turn out to be an adult in spring season. Like other locusts that usually come out go their eggs in the spring season,and cannot fly. Pygmy locusts turned into an adult and fly by infesting on crops. They have a very wide and big appetite for food and they are known for their eating habits which causes loss to mankind.
During mating,the male locusts inserts its abdominal tip into the females own and then releases its sperm. The sperm will enter into the oviduct and then into sperm sac,waiting for the eggs. The females ovulates in most sand soon after mating. Female locust uses its abdominal tip to create a hole of 2-10cm in depth in the moist soil and then releases the eggs. After releasing the eggs,depending on the temperature, it will hatch within 10-20 days. Despite the hatching,they climb up to the ground and because they don't have wing,they starts hopping. The baby locust undertake fire hopper stage and are known as instars.
While going through this hopper stage,they shed their skin and grow wing buds. It is when they reach the adult stage before their wings will start to grow. They last for about eight to ten weeks and during these stages,they starts to group into bands and starts showing sociable behaviors. Their wings takes around a week to be hard completely and are called fledglings. At this stage also,they consume lots of green plants and it is said to help them in their development process and production of egg.
BEHAVIOURAL PHASES OF LOCUSTS
The first behavioral phases is their bodies that becomes vibrant green in color and they repel the insects of their kinds. It is called Solitarious stage
The second behavioural phase is called gregarious phase. These insect undergo some chemical changes in their brain, their body color changes from vibrant green to striking yellow and black marking.
They often come together to form a group better known as swarms.
Locusts are not harmful to human neither are they deadly to them,they don't carry any deadly virus,so perhaps they bite humans,their bite cannot do them harm. The only thing locusts can do to human is to starve them to death by eating the thing which is very important to them.
There are different species of locusts and they are;
- Brown locust
- Moroccan locust
- Desert locust
- Italian locust
- Migratory locust
- Red locust
- Bombay locust
- Australian plague locust
- Yellow spined bamboo locust
- Tree locust
- Rocky mountain locust
- Spur throated locust
In many African and Asian countries, locusts are eaten and considered as delicacies,locusts are tasty too and they have a source of proteins to the body