Locust insect: what does it eat? Where does he live? Migratory locust or Asian green filly insect

Nightingale filly Tolyan sat on the bridge and, dangling his legs in the water, looked with persistent patience at the motionless float. The thick end of the rod was pinched between the flooring boards. - Well, how? - Valerik approached on tiptoe. - Without pooping... - muttered Tolyan, depressed

Egg capsule (locust egg laying)

Siberian filly

Locusts, a group of locusts, are quite a large pest. length from 3cm, externally resembling a grasshopper.

Its elongated body is covered on the sides by hard elytra, often colored to match the area in which the insect lives. The color of individuals can be brown, yellowish or green.

The female has an ovipositor in the form of a pointed spike at the end of her body.

Interesting! The color of locusts is camouflage. It is different even among closely related insects and depends not only on the type of pest, but also on the palette environment, nature of nutrition, humidity.

In the Asian locust, for example, even the gregarious and solitary forms have different appearances.

Photo

For a visual assessment of what locusts look like, photo below:

Locust and grasshopper: differences

Let's find out the difference between a locust and a grasshopper:

• The grasshopper's whiskers are longer than those of the locust, rise strongly above the head;
• nature awarded the grasshopper with longer limbs, massive hind legs - it is better adapted for jumping.

Despite their external similarity, these two insects belong to different orders.– grasshoppers and locusts. The former are representatives of the long-whiskered suborder; the locust belongs to the short-whiskered suborder.

There are also differences in the lifestyle of the grasshopper and the locust:

• Short-whiskered herbivores, and grasshopper representatives are predators;
• locusts are diurnal, raiding crops in broad daylight, long-legged jumpers are considered nocturnal insects;
• grasshoppers lay eggs on above-ground parts of plants, and locust pests into the soil.

Damage caused

A plague of locusts can destroy every day from 3 tons of wild and cultivated plants , not disdaining a blade of grass. It is considered the most harmful. Every 10 years of life, the insect population is accompanied by peaks, during which countless swarms eat up to 20 tons of vegetation at the root.

What plants does it affect?

The pest is unpretentious in food, it eats the ground parts of vegetable plants, cereals, melons, attacks orchards, berry gardens, wild trees, not disdaining reed plants.

They serve as food leaves, stems, shoots, even the bark of young trees.

You can learn more about the taste preferences of the merciless insect in the section dedicated to it.

Interesting! The older an insect gets, the more varied the food it eats becomes. Seasoned individuals are practically omnivorous.

Who will help?

The main defenders of human crops from the voracious flyer are birds. Who eats locusts: herons, sparrows, starlings, storks, gulls, crows. A pest that has lost its agility can become a victim of small rodents.

Kinds

The name of the giant locust itself suggests that these insects have a record large size - up to 20 cm. The pest lives in the hot climate of South America.

In Russia, green locusts are found everywhere, resembling a grasshopper - an assistant to farmers and gardeners.

The inconspicuous omnivorous Moroccan pest is dangerous ability to quickly adapt to insecticides and cause great economic damage.

Capable of migrating in search of climates suitable for breeding, the desert locust is known for the amount of greenery consumed by an individual is equal to its weight.

Nutrition

Good for food both soft and hard foods, which is within the power of the insect’s powerful jaws.

It, by virtue of its structure oral apparatus, cannot feed on nectar or suck out plant juices: the insect is forced to gnaw on everything edible that comes in its way.

Reproduction

Mating of pests during favorable climate can be carried out from 5 to 12 times per year.

After mating and fertilization, the female lays eggs in the soil, from which larvae will appear after 2 weeks - smaller copies of adult insects.

In section about you can see photos of insect eggs and larvae.

Land protection

Surprisingly, locusts still cause great damage to humans today. In the article dedicated to the pest, you can read about how to stop the attacks of its various types.

So, we have described a dangerous agricultural pest - the locust, photographs of which you can see above.

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 this type of insect causes to crops is incomparable. Locusts can destroy all plants in their path.

Information about these insects is reflected in the Bible; chroniclers mentioned them in their works. Locust plagues have 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.

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.

Locust behavior and reproduction

This type of insect has two phases in its life cycle: 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 there is not enough food, 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 large size 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, America, where the largest locust invasion occurred, have been subject to locust invasions.

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.

Locust- this is big arthropod insect from the family of true locusts (lat. Acrididae), included in the order Orthoptera, suborder Short-whiskered. In ancient times, it was the main threat to crops. Descriptions of locusts are found in the Bible, the works of ancient Egyptian authors, the Koran and treatises of the Middle Ages.

Locust - description of an insect.

The locust has an elongated body from 5 to 20 cm long with rear legs bent at the knees, significantly larger in size than the middle and front legs. Two rigid elytra cover a pair of translucent wings, which are difficult to notice when folded. Sometimes they are covered with various patterns. Locusts have shorter antennae than crickets or grasshoppers. The head is large, with big eyes. The sound of locusts is formed as follows: males have special notches located on the surface of the thighs, and special thickenings on the elytra. When they rub against each other, a specific chirping sound is heard, which has a different tonality.

Locust color depends not on genes, but on the environment. Even individuals from the same offspring who grew up in different conditions, will differ in color. In addition, the color of the insect’s protective covers depends on the phase of its development. For example, in a solitary stage of life, a male or female locust may have bright green, yellow, gray or brown camouflage coloring and pronounced sexual differences. During the transition to the gregarious phase, the coloration becomes the same for everyone, and sexual dimorphism is leveled out. Locusts fly very quickly: when flying, a swarm of locusts can cover a distance of up to 120 km in one day.

What is the difference between a locust and a grasshopper?

• The locust is an insect from the locust family, suborder short-whiskered, and grasshoppers are part of the grasshopper family, suborder long-whiskered.
• The locust's whiskers and legs are shorter than those of the grasshopper.
• Grasshoppers are predators, and locusts are herbivorous insects. Although sometimes during long flights a locust can eat a weakened individual of the same species.
• Locusts are active during the day, while grasshoppers are active at night.
• Locusts cause harm agriculture humans, unlike harmless grasshoppers.
• Locusts lay their eggs in the soil or leaves on the ground, and in the stems of plants or under the bark of trees.

Types of locusts, names and photographs.

(lat. Dociostaurus maroccanus)– insect small size, body length rarely exceeds 2 cm. The color of adults is reddish-brown, with small dark spots scattered over the body and an unusual cross-shaped pattern light tone on the back. The hindquarters are pink or yellow on the thighs and red on the lower legs. Despite their miniature size, the Moroccan locust causes enormous damage to farmland and crops, gathering in numerous hordes and destroying absolutely everything that grows on the ground in its path. This type of locust lives in Africa, Central Asia and Algeria, sultry Egypt, arid Libya and Morocco. It is found in European countries, for example, in France, Portugal, Spain, Italy and even in the Balkans.

(lat. Locusta migratoria)- a rather large insect: the body length of mature males is from 3.5 to 5 cm, in females it ranges from 4-6 cm. The color of the Asian locust varies in several ways color solutions: there are individuals of bright green, brownish, yellow-green or gray. The wings are almost colorless, except for a slightly pronounced smoky tint and the finest black veins. The thighs of the hind legs are dark brown or blue-black, the lower legs may be beige, reddish or yellow. The habitat of this type of locust covers the entire territory of Europe, Asia Minor and Central Asia, the countries of North Africa, the region of Northern China and Korea. The Asian locust also lives in the south of Russia, is found in the Caucasus, in the mountains of Kazakhstan, and in the south of Western Siberia.

(lat.Schistocerca gregaria) - an insect with a fairly large size - females reach a size of 8 cm, males are slightly smaller - 6 cm in length. The color of the desert locust is dirty yellow, the wings are brown, with many veins. The hind limbs are bright yellow. This type of locust prefers to live in the tropics and subtropics: it is found in North Africa, on the Arabian Peninsula, on the territory of Hindustan and the border regions of the Sahara.

Italian locust or Prus Italianus (lat. Calliptamus italicus). The body of an adult locust of this species is medium in size: in males, the body length varies from 1.4 to 2.8 cm, females can reach 4 cm in length. The wings are powerful, highly developed, with sparse veins. The colors of individuals are multifaceted: brick-red, brown, brown, sometimes pale pink tones predominate in the color. Light longitudinal stripes and whitish spots are often visible on the main background. The hind wings and thighs of the hind limbs are pinkish, the lower legs are red or whitish, with transverse stripes of black or dark brown. The habitat of the Italian locust covers almost the entire Mediterranean zone and a significant part of Western Asia. The Italian locust lives in central Europe and Western Siberia, and lives in Altai, Iran and Afghanistan.

Rainbow Locust (lat. Phymateus saxosus)- a type of locust that lives on the island of Madagascar. Incredibly bright in color and very poisonous, the rainbow locust reaches a size of 7 cm. The entire body of the insect shimmers in a variety of colors - from bright yellow to purple, blue and red, and is saturated with toxins. They are produced due to the fact that locusts feed exclusively poisonous plants. Typically, large populations of this species of locust are found in the foliage of trees or in thickets of milkweed, the juice of which is a favorite delicacy of the rainbow locust.

Siberian filly (lat. Gomphocerus sibiricus)- an insect of brown-brown, olive or gray-green color. The size of an adult female does not exceed 2.5 cm, males are rarely larger than 2.3 cm. The habitat is very wide: the Siberian filly lives in mountainous areas Central Asia and in the Caucasus, found in Mongolia and northeast China, feels comfortable in the northern regions of Russia, in particular in Siberia and northern Kazakhstan. The insect causes widespread damage to grain crops, pastures and hayfields.

Egyptian filly (lat. Anacridium aegyptium)- one of the most large species locusts living in Europe. Females grow up to 6.5-7 cm in length, males are somewhat more modest in size - 30-55 mm. The color of the insect can be gray, light brown or greenish-olive. Hind legs of blue color, and the thighs are bright orange, with distinctive black markings. The eyes of the Egyptian filly always have pronounced black and white stripes. This type of locust lives in the Middle East, European countries, and North Africa.

Blue-winged filly (lat. Oedipoda caerulescens)- medium-sized locusts: the length of an adult female is 2.2-2.8 cm, the male is slightly smaller - 1.5-2.1 cm in length. The filly's wings are very spectacular - bright blue at the base, becoming colorless towards the top. On the surface of the graceful wings there is a beautiful pattern consisting of the thinnest radial stripes of black color. The tibiae of the hind limbs are bluish in color and covered with light spines. The blue-winged filly is widespread in the steppe and forest-steppe regions of Eurasia, lives in the Caucasus and Central Asia, and is found in Western Siberia and China.

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