All About Locust Insect

The locust insect lives everywhere, with the exception of the Far North and Antarctica. You can meet him in a forest glade, in a city square, in a ditch near the side of the road, in the garden. In a way, this is a unique creature in which two development programs are genetically embedded. While the locust lives as a hermit, not suspecting her own kind, she is completely harmless. But as soon as she sees her closest relatives, the spirit of collectivism wakes up in her. Insects unite in numerous flocks and cause devastating damage to farmers.

General characteristics of the pest

Locust sizes range from 3 to 7 cm. Females are larger than males. The body is oblong, rigid elytra and a pair of translucent wings are attached to it, which remain invisible when folded. The color is very variable and depends on the age, conditions and lifestyle that the locust leads:

• Even individuals emerging from the same oviposition can differ in coloring.
• What the locust looks like is also determined by the phase of its development.
• In the European strip, solitary individuals are predominantly yellow, brick, green, olive, brown in color, which helps to camouflage themselves against the background of surrounding vegetation.
• The older the individual, the darker its color becomes.
• If the locust joined the pack, it acquires the same color as the rest of the team.

Big head is not very mobile. Large crescent-shaped eyes and a rectangular, almost square muzzle of locusts give the insect a good-natured appearance. The gnawing oral apparatus is represented by powerful jaws that help to gnaw even the thickest and most durable stems. With the upper mandibles, the insect nibbles the leaves, and only then crushes them using the lower mandibles.

A distinctive feature of locusts from their closest relatives: crickets and grasshoppers is a short mustache, their length does not exceed half of the body.

The hind legs of pinkish color are well developed, which allows locusts to jump at a distance of 20 times its length. It is no coincidence that insects are endowed with jumping abilities. At the stage of the larva they still do not know how to fly and their motor capabilities are limited by crawling and jumping. Some species do not have flight activity in adulthood.

How much locust lives depends on environmental conditions. Rainy seasons provoke the development of fungal diseases of plants, which leads to infection of the insect and its death. Natural enemies: wild wasps, bugs, birds can also shorten their lifespan. A person also makes his contribution, destroying pests. If the locust is in optimal conditions and has not become anyone's victim, then it can live from 8 months to 2 years, depending on the species.

Insect diet

For the most part, locusts spend their time on leaves, in flowers, in grass. Locusts are the most vegetarians without obvious food preferences.Most species do not care what kind of culture it is — wild or agricultural. They feed on the leaves of plants, trees, shrubs, all terrestrial parts of plantings. Only some species prefer herbaceous plants. During its life, an insect eats an average of 300-350 g of plant mass, and the daily volume is twice its own weight.

For certain types of food, poisonous plants serve. As the poisonous components accumulate in the body of the locust, it also becomes poisonous. Such individuals are characterized by a bright screaming coloring, which, as it were, warns of the danger of all comers, to feast on the locusts.

When insects gather in flocks, what the locust eats depends on the objects that come in its way. In this case, even thatched roofs, reeds can be eaten, not to mention vegetables, grains, and melons. According to eyewitnesses, during insect invasions, locusts do not devour unless brick and iron.
The insect is bred as food for various exotic animals. Therefore, the question of what locust eats at home does not surprise anyone. In the insectariums they are fed twice a day with grain, green herbs, some owners even prepare germinated wheat for their pets.

How do locusts breed?

Females lay eggs at the end of summer, in autumn. To do this, she makes a depression in the soil and lays her eggs in it. A special secret is secreted from the special gland, which, like foam, fills all the openings between the eggs and creates a solid reliable protection. After hardening, the ovipositor looks like a long tube called a small egg.

One female makes several clutches, and then dies. In European latitudes, eggs spend the winter in the ground, and with the arrival of heat, white larvae appear from them. Their parents are distinguished by tiny sizes and underdeveloped wings. After a few hours, the larva acquires a characteristic color and begins to feed intensely. After 4-6 weeks, having undergone 4 molting, it turns into an imago.

In a warm tropical climate, females lay eggs year-round and the number of generations per year can be 6-8.

Development phases

As already noted, the locust has two development options: single and herd, which are very different from each other.

Single cycle

Locust, the filly, as they are called single individuals, freely develops with an abundance of feed, leads a low-activity shy lifestyle, because of which it was previously systematized as a separate species. Single individuals are characterized by camouflage color, expressed sexual dimorphism. The filly does not bring significant harm.

In fact, a single phase of locust development is necessary for the safety of the population. The female lays eggs and when the food base becomes insufficient to feed all the larvae, the locust moves to another stage of development.

Herd development

Unification in flocks is observed in hot dry years, when locusts begin to experience a shortage of food and moisture. According to recent studies, a lack of protein provokes females to postpone intensively, the so-called "marching" offspring.

Interesting! In laboratory conditions, many mirrors were placed on the site of a settled mare. Seeing her reflections, the female began to actively lay eggs according to the “camp program”.

Gathering in a large tribe, intense friction against each other, the visibility of their own kind, the smell of fellow tribesmen causes a powerful production of serotonin in the nervous system.

Due to the release of the hormone, individuals undergo dramatic morphological changes in a matter of hours:

• color change;
• increase in size;
• leveling of sexual dimorphism.

Clusters of adult flying locusts are called flocks; larvae form swarms. The population is moving, as if on command in one direction. Weakened individuals along the way are eaten by fellow tribesmen.Adult locusts are capable of long flights and travels from 90 to 140 km per day.

The length of the flocks is measured in tens of kilometers, and the number can reach several billion individuals. The weight of such "teams" reaches tens of tons.

The locust invasion cannot go unnoticed. The sound of the approaching insects is comparable to the peals of thunder, and the flock itself covers the sun.

On its way, the flock devours literally everything, including thatched roofs of houses, vineyards, orchards, vegetables, and grain plantations. Literally decades ago, locust attacks caused hunger. Now flocks bring huge losses to farmers. In 2015, the invasion of locusts in Russia destroyed such a number of areas that are comparable with the territory of an entire state, for example, Romania.

Locust species

There are a lot of species of locusts. Most of them quickly adapt to new conditions and develop new territories.

The largest locust

This is the largest locust of all migratory species. The sizes of the females reach 8 cm, the males are slightly smaller - 6 cm. The color can vary from dirty yellow to brown. There are many veins on the wings. It lives mainly in the Sahara, Hindustan.

The most saturated bright yellow color in larvae and males. The pairing process of bright individuals is very interesting. The male begins to chatter violently, attracting the female. The female, who liked the musical accompaniment, kindly allows the male to climb onto her back. Mating lasts several hours. Some cavaliers like to sit on a female so much that they continue to do this at a time when the female is busy laying eggs. Life expectancy is only 8 weeks.

Asian locust

Asian locust migratory nondescript colors in brownish, greenish, yellowish tones. Wings are also not characterized by the brightness of colors. You can meet an insect throughout Europe, Asia, the south of the Caucasus, Siberia, Korea, and China.

Egyptian locust

This is the most giant locust in Europe. The body length of females can reach 7-8 cm. Only South American locusts can compete with the sizes with it. According to some sources, they grow up to 20 cm in length, but there is no exact evidence for this.

Egyptian locusts are distinguished by gray, olive, greenish, yellow color. Tibiae bright orange. Terrorizes Europe, North Africa.

The benefits and harms of locusts

The greatest damage is caused by hordes of locusts, destroying fields and plantations. However, the average layman who does not care about the preservation of the crop is more interested in the answer to the question of whether the locust bites. The insect eats exclusively plant food and does not bite a person, unlike its fellow grasshopper.

No less burning question is whether locusts are eaten. Orthoptera insects are the most common after ants. In African countries, it is fried, mixed into cakes. Arab women several centuries ago could cook 2 dozen locust dishes. Recipes have lost their relevance due to lack of ingredients.

In California, feasts were held during locust invasions. Caught insects were soaked in marinade, then crushed and soups were prepared. The Japanese are pickled in soy sauce and fried. In short, there are many recipes for making locusts, but not everyone can appreciate its taste, not so much because of inaccessibility, but because of disgust.

Locust and grasshopper: how to distinguish

These two insects are very similar, so not everyone can determine how a grasshopper differs from a locust. As a result, grasshoppers are exterminated at the dachas, taking them for pests, but they are useful creatures - they destroy the Colorado potato beetle, aphids and other garden parasites.

The locust and the grasshopper have several differences:

• the body of a locust is long, and that of a grasshopper is shorter and wider at the sides;
• grasshopper's mustache is longer;
• the grasshopper is active at night, and the locust during the day;
• locusts eat plants, and the grasshopper insects;
• the grasshopper has an elongated muzzle; the locust has a rectangular muzzle.