Desert locust (Schistocerca gregaria)
The desert locust is one of about a dozen species of grasshoppers known as locusts which - unlike other grasshoppers - are able to change their behaviour in response to population density. This enables them to form swarms that can migrate over large distances. Locust swarms vary from less than one square kilometre to several hundred square kilometres. There can be from 40 million to as many as 80 million locust adults in each square kilometre of a swarm.
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Swarming locusts
Planet Earth
A plague of biblical proportions occurs as billions of voracious insects fill the air.
Earth News
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Desert locust swarms
Swarms of locusts have been darkening skies across north-west Africa in what the UN warns could be the worst plague in 15 years.
About the Desert locust
Plagues of the Desert Locust (Schistocerca gregaria) have threatened agricultural production in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia for centuries. The livelihood of at least one-tenth of the world’s human population can be affected by this voracious insect. The Desert Locust is potentially the most dangerous of the locust pests because of the ability of swarms to fly rapidly across great distances. It has two to five generations per year. The northern highlands of Ethiopia (Tigray) and Eritrea slow the movements of desert locusts to the breeding areas of the Red Sea coast. Potential desert locust plagues originating in east Africa can be prevented if action is taken during or before localized outbreaks in Eritrea and Sudan (Jahn 1993). The 2004 desert locust outbreak has caused significant crop losses in West Africa and had a negative impact on food security in the region. While the Desert Locust alone is not responsible for famines, it can be an important contributing factor.
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The Desert locust is
Adaptation data provided by Animal Diversity Web
Where can I see them?
They can be found in the following habitats:
Elsewhere on the web
- Insect pests of Ethiopia: locust life cycle (ethiopia.ipm-info.org)
- FAO Locust Watch: FAQ on desert locusts (fao.org)
- Desert locust (wikipedia.org)
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