Our world is amazingly beautiful. It is rich in various plants, animals and insects. Some individuals seem to be created in order to give a person aesthetic pleasure, to caress the eye, to give joy from the realization of all the charm of some forms of life. However, there is no day without night. There are creatures in the world that not only have a frightening appearance, but also harm a person with their vital activity. The locust insect is a good example of such a creature. How dangerous are they?
Locust Insect Description
Locusts and the so-called grasshoppers together form a single superfamily - locusts. This is the first largest group belonging to the order of Orthopteran insects. If you compare the locust with its closest relatives, grasshoppers, you can see that it has shorter antennae, hearing organs have unusual specifics, and the female has a shorter ovipositor. Most orthopteran insects are born "musicians" of the natural world. The locust insect is no exception.
Where does this pest live? In RussiaThere are about six hundred species of locusts that terrorize most of the southern regions of the country. During the day, her chirring drowns out the singing of grasshoppers, due to the large number of flocks. The apparatus that allows the locust to produce a melody is located on the thighs of the hind legs, as well as on the elytra. On the inner part of the thigh is the sequence of tubercles. The vein is seriously thickened here. Making accelerated movements with the hip, the insect touches it with tubercles, which leads to the appearance of intermittent chirping. The organs of hearing in locusts are located on the sides of the first segment of the abdomen. In some species of individuals, the lower wings are painted with bright colors. In case of danger, the locust takes off sharply and scares off the enemy with a loud song and colorful colors.
What do locusts eat?
Insect locust, unlike relatives - grasshoppers, feeds exclusively on plants, not disdaining crops. This pest has a truly brutal appetite. He eats all the plants that come across on the way. If a swarm of locusts reaches the fields where a person grows corn, grain and other crops, a region that has come under the terror of an insect may suffer from famine.
Adult locust eats vegetation equal in weight to its own body in a day. Throughout her life, she can destroy more than three hundred grams of green mass. The offspring left by one female locust during one summer eats the amount of food sufficient to feed two sheep. Flocks of a pest in a few hours can easily destroy more than onethousand hectares of crops.
Locust species
Harmful insect species are usually divided into herd individuals and fillies living alone. In the south of the Russian Federation, the migratory insect locust is especially common. Photos of this pest can be viewed in any biological encyclopedia. The locusts are very secretive. During mass reproduction, it groups larvae into one large cluster, called a swarm. Sometimes its area is simply huge. If a lot of larvae hatch in one area, they immediately start migrating. Otherwise, they remain in place and lead a sedentary, solitary lifestyle.
Locust swarms
In the fifties of the twentieth century in North Africa, in the city of Morocco, people noticed a huge swarm of locusts, the length of which reached two hundred and fifty kilometers, and a width of twenty. In previous centuries, cases were known when hordes of this insect reached Europe. Some flocks numbered forty billion individuals. They accumulate in the so-called flying clouds. Their area is sometimes equal to thousands of square kilometers.
Insect wings rub during flight - a creak is heard. When a cloud of millions of individuals flies by, the noise it makes is mistaken for thunder. The locust insect, accumulating in adult swarms, is able to cover about a hundred kilometers a day. Flying at the same time at a speed equal to fifteen kilometers per hour. In history, cases were recorded when small swarms of locusts traveled across the ocean,overcoming a distance equal to almost six thousand kilometers.
How do locusts reproduce?
The locust insect reproduces with its shortened ovipositor. As a rule, the female of this pest lays eggs directly into the ground. It releases a liquid mass resembling glue. Organic matter solidifies over time. Using it, the insect cements pieces of soil around future pests. The so-called capsule is formed by the people - a strong cocoon for eggs with solid walls. If the "population density" of insects becomes too high, the locusts gather in swarms and fly away from their habitat. So she "unloads" the field, which is no longer able to feed all the individuals living on it.
