The locust is a fairly large insect from the class of Orthoptera. For a long time it has been main threat for cultural crops.
Descriptions of locusts can be found in such ancient writings as the Bible, the works of the authors of ancient Egypt, the Koran, and so on.
Description of the insect
The body of the locust is elongated, the length can reach 20 centimeters. The “knees” of the hind legs are bent, their size is several times larger than the size of the middle and front legs.
There are a pair of hard wing covers, under which there are fragile wings with original patterns. When folded, they are quite difficult to notice.
The antennae of locusts are somewhat shorter than, for example, those of crickets, and the head is larger and the eyes are larger. The insect makes a characteristic sound characteristic of males.
The surface of the males' thighs is slightly jagged, and some thickening can be seen on the thighs. During friction, these parts emit a specific sound, which can be of any tone.
Many people believe that the color of a locust depends on its genotype. But actually it is not. The color of an insect has a direct relationship with environmental conditions.
Even individuals belonging to the same offspring, but living in different places, may vary in color.
Another factor influencing coloration is the developmental phase. The younger individual has green color, and an individual that has entered the gregarious phase acquires a traditional color.
Locusts have the ability to fly; they can travel up to 120 kilometers per day.
The difference between a locust and a grasshopper
The main difference between grasshoppers and locusts is that they belong to different families and suborders. Unlike locusts, the grasshopper belongs to the long-whiskered suborder.
The structure of the paws also differs. The locust's are shorter than the grasshopper's.
Despite their large size, locusts are herbivorous insects, while grasshoppers are predators.
Locusts are active during the day, while grasshoppers are active at night.
For Agriculture grasshoppers are harmless, but locusts often cause colossal harm and huge losses.
These insects also differ in the way they lay eggs. Locusts lay eggs in the soil, and grasshoppers use plant stems for their offspring or lay eggs under the bark of trees.
Locust habitat
Locusts live on almost every continent, with the only exception being Antarctica. Many climate zones are suitable for this insect.
Some species typically live in grassy areas, others prefer to settle in close proximity to water, while others choose semi-deserts as their habitat.
Nutrition
Those individuals that live separately are not known for their gluttony. Over the course of its entire life, one locust can consume up to 300 grams of plants. However, when she gets into a pack, her behavior changes dramatically.
A locust invasion causes enormous harm, since, having met its relatives, the insect becomes omnivorous and begins to absorb everything it sees: reeds, reeds, fruits, grain crops, and so on.
Long flights and lack of food force the locusts to feed on their weaker relatives.
Development and reproduction
During their life, locusts go through three stages of development. 1. Egg; 2. Larva; 3. Adult. The hotter the climate, the more often mating occurs, and, consequently, reproduction.
IN autumn period Eggs are laid, which are kept in a special bag that protects them from damage. One such pouch can hide more than 100 eggs.
After laying eggs, the parents usually die. The eggs remain in the soil all winter and mature.
With the onset of spring, the baby locusts hatch, but they do not yet look like adults; they do not have wings.
It takes 40 days and several moults for locusts to move to the next stage.
One flock can contain more than one billion individuals, and the area that the flock occupies reaches 1000 square kilometers. Such a number of insects can produce a sound similar to thunder.
There are currently great amount species of locusts, photos of which you can see below.
Photo of locusts
The locust is an insect that unites several species and represents the true locust family. Another name for the species is locusts.
Locusts usually form giant swarms of several million individuals. The damage that causes this type insects to crops cannot be compared with anything. Locusts can destroy all plants in their path.
Information about these insects is reflected in the Bible; chroniclers mentioned them in their works. The plague of locusts has always been a universal disaster. Countless hordes of these insects destroyed the crops, which inevitably led to mass starvation. However, appearance insect, does not correspond to the terrible consequences caused by them. It is interesting that some types of locusts have been eaten by people for a long time.
Appearance of locusts
The insect's body length is 6 cm. Typically, locusts have a greenish-brown color, but the color may differ from one individual to another.
It can be completely brown or green. Basically, the color of an insect depends on its age. The older the locust, the darker its color.
Locusts “sweeping away” the crop. The insect has a large head and thread-like, short antennae. The locust has powerful jaws; they are closed on top by a pronotal process. The elytra are covered with dark spots. The insect has transparent lower wings, greenish in color, which fold like a fan. Inner side limbs are covered with multi-colored spots. Female locusts are larger than males; at the end of their abdomen they have 2 pairs of ovipositor hooks protruding forward.
Locusts are insects harmful to agriculture. Locust behavior and reproduction
This type of insect has in its life cycle two phases: gregarious and solitary. Both phases have the same development period. First the egg appears, then the larva, the last cycle is the adult.
The females of this insect species lay their eggs in the ground. After some time, larvae emerge from the eggs. The larvae molt several times and after the final molt they develop wings. The imago stage begins. Experts distinguish 5 transformations of the larva.
The solitary phase of locust life occurs during periods when there is an abundance of food around. At the filly's single stage There is protective coloration and sexual dimorphism can be observed. At times when food is scarce, usually in dry and hot years, the female lays a large number of eggs From them emerge larvae that are already programmed for the gregarious phase of life. From such larvae, it is not fillies that are born, but real locusts. It differs from fillies in having a brighter and more contrasting color and a larger size of wings and body.
At this stage, the locusts gather in huge swarms and move, as if on command, in one direction. The weight of insects in such clusters can reach several thousand tons. The locusts destroy all vegetation that is encountered along the way. In this regard, agricultural land may be severely damaged, which can lead to famine. Since ancient times, regions such as the African continent, Australia, southern Asia, and America have been subject to locust invasions, where the largest locust invasion occurred.
According to some reports, these voracious insects were able to cross the Atlantic. It turns out that even the waters of the ocean cannot be a barrier to hordes of locusts. If the wind is fair, insects can cover 500 km in a day. The largest swarm of locusts that could be counted contained 12.5 trillion individuals. This huge swarm covered an area of the earth of 513 thousand km. Such an incredible amount of insects weighed 27.5 million tons.
Tells entomologist, candidate of biological sciences Dmitry Belov.
Grasshopper
These are the most common “chirpers”. Grasshoppers live almost throughout the entire territory of Russia, except for the highlands and regions of the Far North. Most species are hunters, patiently waiting for prey to appear. In this respect, the grasshopper is similar to a praying mantis - it also lies in wait for its prey, and then grabs it with its strong front legs and powerful jaws. Sometimes a grasshopper moves with quiet steps, feeling the road in front of it with its antennae - as soon as it touches another insect, the hunter catches it with a quick swoop. When choosing an object for a snack, he does not disdain anyone, even his relatives. Most often, aphids, hairless caterpillars, young beetles and fillies are found in its jaws. If there is not enough animal food, the grasshopper can also switch to vegetation, eating the buds and leaves of shrubs and various cereals. Only a few species are completely herbivorous, such as the greenhouse grasshopper, which damages flowers in greenhouses.
So it turns out that the children's song is not telling the truth: the grasshopper will “touch” the grasshopper and the booger, and is not particularly friendly with flies. And, by the way, it can easily bite the skin on the fingers of a person who carelessly grabs it. Moreover, he will vomit a drop of his own blood into the wound, which will burn like fire. Handle him with care!
Built-in violin
The grasshopper performs incredibly beautiful melodies using its front wings. The grasshopper moves the jagged vein on the left wing, like a bow, along the “grater” on the right wing, and from it the vibrations are transmitted to a special vibrating membrane, the “mirror.”
The performer’s “track list” includes long, piercing invocation songs, short trills of warning to rivals, and a quiet, creaky ballad addressed to the lady of his heart. The male not only plays it - sometimes he also dances, swaying from side to side while performing.
The hearing organs of grasshoppers are located... on the shins of the front legs. The inside of the “ears” are very complex, but on the outside they look like membranes or narrow slits.
What a jump!
The grasshopper is a world-famous jumper: the height of his jump is ten times, and the length is twenty times greater than his own height.
Locust
It is possible that a locust or grasshopper is giving a concert in your garden. This is the closest relative of grasshoppers, found almost everywhere except in the coldest areas. They feed only on plants.
Locusts have become notorious for their monstrous appetite and ability to gather in swarms of billions. Every day, locusts eat as much plant food as they weigh. It would seem that this is not much, only 2 g, but a flock of a billion insects already absorbs 2000 tons! In Russia, locusts live in the lower reaches of the Volga, Ural, Don, and Terek.
fillies ( small species locusts) are more modest in their appetites, but are found everywhere. They can be seen even in the center of a large city.
Photo: www.globallookpress.com
What does she play with?
The locust's sound apparatus is simple. This is a long row of knobs on the thighs of the hind legs and a thick vein on the front wing. Quickly moving its leg along the wing, the insect produces abrupt chirping sounds. The melody changes from ringing at midday to quiet and hoarse at dawn and sunset.
Grasshopper or locust?
The grasshopper has long whiskers (sometimes 4 times longer than the body), while the locust has short whiskers. The female grasshopper has a saber-shaped ovipositor at the end of its abdomen, but the locust does not. The grasshopper has a pointed head at the bottom and a short body for greater maneuverability. The locust has a rounded and blunt head, and an elongated body for better aerodynamics. Grasshoppers are sedentary, while swarms of locusts fly thousands of kilometers.
Cicada
If the song comes from above, then most likely it is performed by a cicada, one of worst enemies plants. Adult insects suck juices from the leaves of grasses, shrubs and trees. The larvae hide in the ground and damage the roots.
Southern cicadas are large (body length - 2-6.5 cm, wingspan - up to 18 cm), and in Central Russia and to the north live small leafhoppers - no more than 1 cm in height.
Photo: www.globallookpress.com
The cicada's body is wide and short, with two pairs of transparent wings on the sides. The head is wide, with big eyes stick out. The legs are strong, but cicadas cannot jump high, and they fly only so-so. More often they prefer to walk.
The cicada is much tougher to the touch than it looks, and its wings are so dense that you feel like you could cut yourself with them. But in reality they are harmless to humans.
Both male and female cicadas chirp, although the latter do this extremely rarely. But the males, wanting to attract “ladies,” fill the air with a very loud song - up to 100 decibels. Sometimes it can be heard from a distance of 800 meters.
Powerful vocals
The loud songs of cicadas help them keep predators at bay. In the North American deserts, the power of the sound of the cicada chorus is such that human eardrums cannot withstand it! What then happens to predators, whose hearing is much more subtle? None of them will dare to approach the singing cluster of cicadas.
Where does the voice come from?
The cicada's vocal apparatus is a very clever device. Simplified, it can be described as follows. It has membranes (“cymbals”) on the lower part of its body. With the help of special muscles, the cicada can tense them and suddenly relax them. The rapid vibrations produce sound, which is amplified and modified by a special chamber in the insect's body. Sounds are made using the same principle. tin with a convex bottom, if you alternately press it with your finger and release it again.
Class: Insects - Insecta
Squad: Orthoptera – Orthoptera
Family: True locusts - Acrididae
Genus: – Locusta
Migratory locust or Asian locust(Locusta migratoria L.) is a polyphagous pest found in Asia, northern Africa and in southern Europe.
Morphology of migratory locusts
The insect is large, has a body measuring 30-50 mm, females are slightly larger - 45-55 mm. Body color is brown-green, gray-green, brown-olive. The elytra are oblong, narrow, with a yellow tint or green in frequent dark spots or points. The wings are fan-shaped, wide, with a green or yellow tint, the edges of the wings are darkened, and at the top they are colorless. The chest is covered with light hairs.
There are two phases - solitary and gregarious. In the solitary phase, which is common in the northern regions of the range, the pronotum does not have a constriction in the middle, and the middle carina is arched and high. In the gregarious form living in southern regions area, pronotum saddle-shaped, median carina concave or straight. The capsule is slightly curved or straight, large sizes(up to 85 mm long and up to 10 mm in diameter). The egg capsule is a column of light pink secretion in which the female lays eggs. Each egg capsule contains 40-120 eggs yellow color, 7-8 mm in size, thin, narrowed at both ends. The eggs are arranged in four longitudinal rows, at an angle of 40-45° to the wall of the egg capsule. After laying, the upper side of the egg capsule is in the soil at a depth of 5-7 cm.
Life cycle of the Asian locust
The pest overwinters in the egg stage in a capsule. In May, larvae emerge from the eggs in a white film; after a couple of hours they darken and begin to feed on vegetation. The larva goes through five instars in its development, each of which differs in the degree of development of the wing primordia and in the number of segments on the antennae. The adult locust feeds actively and 30-40 days after mating, the female migratory locust begins to lay eggs. Each female lays on average three egg capsules (up to 350 eggs). The adult dies in October.
The greatest activity of locusts occurs in the morning and evening.
As mentioned earlier, the Asian locust has gregarious and solitary phases. During the gregarious phase, the larvae unite and form clusters called bands. During the years of mass reproduction, swarms can occupy huge areas, up to a couple of thousand hectares, and fly long distances, up to 50 km, while the locusts eat everything in their path, often leaving behind empty pastures and fields. Migratory locust adults, uniting in swarms, can fly over distances of up to 300 km, and with a strong tailwind, up to 1000 km.
Outbreaks with mass reproduction of locusts last for several years. On average, the interval between population peaks is 10-15 years.
The locust is very dangerous pest, since both larvae and adults roughly eat leaves, stems and generative organs, which can completely destroy plants. One individual locust can eat up to 500 g of green plant matter.
The number of pests in different years reduce various pathogens that affect eggs in egg capsules, and entomophages that destroy larvae and adults.
Methods of protection against migratory locusts
Agrotechnical and organizational and economic control methods include autumn deep plowing, which will help get rid of the wintering form. It is also necessary to reduce possible egg-laying sites, that is, to develop virgin soil, improve forest belts, fight weeds not only in the field, but also beyond it, and get rid of plant residues.
Chemical method of combating migratory locusts
Processing large territories carried out, with the help of aviation, 20-30 minutes before sunrise, if the wind speed does not exceed 3 m/s. With evening pollination, less efficiency is observed.
To combat a single phase of locusts, poisoned baits are used. To prepare them, you need horse or sheep manure as bait, 12% hexachlorane dust at a rate of 200-400 g and 5-10 liters of water per 10 kg of manure. Baits can be introduced by aircraft, machines or manually.
Chemicals can be used to control the pest regardless of the time of year (from spring to autumn), but it is most effective to treat with insecticides in the spring, before sowing crops. The procedure is repeated a second time in case of a massive pest invasion.
Insecticides of the synthetic pyrethroid group are effective in the fight against migratory locusts: Fastak, Karate Zeon, Tsunami, Arrivo, Gladiator, Taran and others. When protecting against locusts, as a rule, take the maximum dosages allowed by the instructions of the drugs.
If there are older larvae, it is recommended to add organophosphorus insecticides (Fufanon, in an amount of 50% of the maximum dosage) to the solution.
During a locust invasion, the most effective drugs are imidacloprid-based - Confidor, Tanker, Image. They protect crops from pests for several weeks.
Dimilin ( active substance Diflubenzuron 250 g/kg, wettable powder).
The uniqueness of this insecticide lies in its special mechanism of action: it inhibits the growth of insects - it stops the process of formation of chitin in the body of the larvae, as a result of which the molting process is disrupted and the death of the pest occurs.
The advantages of this drug are: low toxicity to humans, warm-blooded animals and beneficial insect fauna; rapid decomposition in water and soil; a long period aftereffects (up to 40 days).
To protect against locusts, insecticide is applied when the pest is in the larval stage of development. The application rate of the drug is 0.14 kg/ha. Used in pastures, areas with wild vegetation, gardens and forest belts.
Migratory locust lays eggs photo
Migratory locust - Locusta migratoriaLocust video
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