Desert locust

Schistocerca gregaria · The desert locust is a swarming short-horned grasshopper found mainly in the deserts and dry areas of northern and eastern Africa, Arabia, and southwest Asia.

Desert locust
Photo: Addshore, CC BY-SA 4.0
Desert locust
Photo: Arpingstone, Public domain
Desert locust
Photo: Frank Vassen from Brussels, Belgium, CC BY 2.0

Taxonomy

KingdomAnimalia
PhylumArthropoda
ClassInsecta
OrderOrthoptera
FamilyAcrididae
GenusSchistocerca
SpeciesSchistocerca gregaria

Where it lives

Dry lands from West Africa and the Sahel through Arabia to India.

Fun facts

  • Even a small swarm of 1 square kilometre can eat in a day as much food as about 35,000 people.
  • Crowded young locusts bump their hind legs together, and this touch triggers their change from a solitary form to a swarming one.
  • Swarming locusts are reported to have crossed the Atlantic Ocean from Africa to the Caribbean in 10 days during the 1987–89 plague.
  • Solitary locusts are green or brown and fly at night, but swarming ones turn bold yellow and black as young hoppers and fly by day in dense swarms.

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Facts and taxonomy adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).