---
title: "What the sources say about the Desert Locust | AnimalTracks.wiki"
description: "43 claims from the Desert Locust profile, each beside the words of the source that backs it."
image: "https://animaltracks.wiki/images/animals/desert-locust-1.webp"
canonical: "https://animaltracks.wiki/animals/desert-locust/sources/"
---

# What the sources say about the Desert Locust (*Schistocerca gregaria*)

> 43 claims from the Desert Locust profile, each beside the words of the source that backs it. A "..." marks a cut in a quote and [brackets] an insertion.

Profile: [Desert Locust](https://animaltracks.wiki/animals/desert-locust/)

## Desert Locust. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

https://www.fao.org/locusts/en/

| The page says | The source says |
| :--- | :--- |
| A shy loner that turns into a swarming crop-eater when it gets crowded | In response to environmental stimuli, dense and highly mobile Desert Locust swarms can form. They are ravenous eaters who consume their own weight per day, targeting food crops and forage. (note: tagline; 'crowded' is the NASA claim below) |
| Usually the semi-arid and arid deserts of Africa, the Near East and South-West Asia | During quiet periods (known as recessions) Desert Locusts are usually restricted to the semi-arid and arid deserts of Africa, the Near East and South-West Asia (note: stats.habitat) |
| Vegetation, including crops, forage and noxious weeds | They are ravenous eaters who consume their own weight per day, targeting food crops and forage. (note: stats.diet) |
| In its gregarious phase it turns social, changes colour and shape, and joins a swarm | In response to environmental stimuli, dense and highly mobile Desert Locust swarms can form. |
| A square kilometre of swarm can hold up to 80 million adults | Just a single square kilometer of swarm can contain up to 80 million adults |
| They target food crops and forage | targeting food crops and forage |
| Desert locusts live for 3 months | Desert Locust live for 3 months |
| Eggs hatch after two weeks, and the wingless young, called hoppers, become winged adults after 6 weeks | eggs hatch after two weeks, hoppers fledge and become adults after 6 weeks |
| Adults take at least a month to mature and be ready to lay eggs | adults take at least one month to mature and be ready to lay eggs |
| Numbers can grow 20 times in three months | There can be an exponential increase in locust numbers with every new generation of breeding: a 20 time increase in their numbers after three months |
| In quiet periods, called recessions | During quiet periods (known as recessions) |
| that get under 200 mm of rain a year | that receive less than 200 mm of rain annually |
| That belt covers about 16 million square kilometres in about 30 countries | This is an area of about 16 million square kilometres, consisting of about 30 countries. |
| Females lay their eggs in moist sandy soil, and rain helps them survive and breed | lay eggs in moist sandy soil; rainfall is conducive to Desert Locust survival and reproduction |
| Up to 150 km. Desert locusts fly in daylight and travel downwind | Desert Locust fly during the day downwind for up to 150 km in a day. (note: faq) |
| By FAO's reckoning, a swarm covering one square kilometre has the potential to eat as much food in a day as 35,000 people | A 1 km2 swarm has the potential to eat the same amount of food in one day as 35,000 people. (note: faq) |
| large swarms are a major threat to food security and rural livelihoods | Large swarms pose a major threat to food security and rural livelihoods. (note: faq) |

## Locust! NASA Earth Observatory.

https://science.nasa.gov/earth/earth-observatory/locust/

| The page says | The source says |
| :--- | :--- |
| A shy loner that turns into a swarming crop-eater when it gets crowded | In one phase, it’s reclusive and solitary, going out of its way to avoid coming into contact with another of its kind (note: tagline; crowd trigger in the next claim) |
| A shy loner that turns into a swarming crop-eater when it gets crowded | The forced physical contact brought about when numerous locusts descend on a dwindling food supply causes the animals’ hind legs to bump up against one another. This jostling triggers a cascade of metabolic and behavioral changes |
| Vegetation, including crops, forage and noxious weeds | subsisting on even the most noxious weeds when necessary (note: stats.diet) |
| Switches from loner to swarm member when crowded | transformation from “go it alone” to “one of the crowd.” (note: stats.superpower) |
| The desert locust has two phases | The desert locust has two phases. |
| In its solitary phase it is reclusive, goes out of its way to avoid others of its kind and migrates only at night | In one phase, it’s reclusive and solitary, going out of its way to avoid coming into contact with another of its kind and migrating only at night. |
| In its gregarious phase it turns social, changes colour and shape, and joins a swarm | it undergoes explosive population growth, changes color and shape, and becomes more tolerant of others, more social, or gregarious. |
| When locusts are forced together, their hind legs bump against one another, and that jostling sets off a cascade of metabolic and behavioural changes | The forced physical contact brought about when numerous locusts descend on a dwindling food supply causes the animals’ hind legs to bump up against one another. This jostling triggers a cascade of metabolic and behavioral changes |
| They develop yellow and black warning colours, most strongly in the juveniles | They develop a yellow and black warning coloration—most pronounced in the juveniles |
| Their bodies become shorter, and they give off a perfume of hormones that attracts them all to the same location | Their bodies become shorter, and they give off a perfume of hormones that causes them all to be attracted to the same location |
| Each locust weighs about 2 grams and can eat its own body weight in vegetation every day | With each insect capable of eating its own body weight (about 2 grams, or .07 ounces) in vegetation each day (note: mass is NASA's; scope is the species) |
| can survive on even the most noxious weeds when they must | subsisting on even the most noxious weeds when necessary |
| A single swarm can cover 1,200 square kilometres | A single swarm can cover 1200 square kilometers (460 square miles) |
| As many as 60 countries can be affected | As many as 60 countries can be affected. |
| the wingless young, called hoppers | the newly hatched “hoppers,” as the young, wingless insects are called |
| They are one species, Schistocerca gregaria, in two phases | the standoffish locust of the recession years was the same species of insect that exploded out of the desert (note: faq) |
| Scientists did not realise that until 1921 | it wasn’t until 1921 that scientists even became aware that the standoffish locust of the recession years was the same species of insect (note: faq) |
| Crowding turns a desert locust into a swarm member | The forced physical contact brought about when numerous locusts descend on a dwindling food supply causes the animals’ hind legs to bump up against one another. This jostling triggers a cascade of metabolic and behavioral changes (note: vibe.reason; same quote as the body claim "When locusts are forced together, their hind legs bump again") |
| hind legs bumping against one another set off the change | The forced physical contact brought about when numerous locusts descend on a dwindling food supply causes the animals’ hind legs to bump up against one another. This jostling triggers a cascade of metabolic and behavioral changes (note: vibe.reason; same quote as the body claim "A shy loner that turns into a swarming crop-eater when it ge") |

## Anstey et al. (2009). Serotonin Mediates Behavioral Gregarization Underlying Swarm Formation in Desert Locusts. Science.

https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1165939

| The page says | The source says |
| :--- | :--- |
| serotonin is both necessary for behavioural gregarization to occur and sufficient to induce it | being both necessary if behavioral gregarization is to occur and sufficient to induce it |

## Bennet-Clark (1975). The energetics of the jump of the locust Schistocerca gregaria. Journal of Experimental Biology.

https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.63.1.53

| The page says | The source says |
| :--- | :--- |
| For an adult male, one jump takes 9 millijoules of energy | The jump of adult male locusts requires an energy of 9 mJ |
| the major part of that energy is stored before the leap | The major part of the jump energy is stored before the jump. |
| The push itself lasts 25 to 30 milliseconds | The jump impulse lasts 25-30 msec. |
| Their jump runs on a spring | The anatomy of the metathoracic leg is redescribed with particular reference to storage of energy in cuticular elements and the way in which the stored energy is used in jumping. (note: figure; the spring is the stored elastic energy) |
| the locust reaches 3.2 metres per second | A velocity of 3.2 m.sec-1 is reached after a peak acceleration of 180 m.sec-2. |

## Simpson, McCaffery & Hägele (1999). A behavioural analysis of phase change in the desert locust. Biological Reviews.

https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-185x.1999.tb00038.x

| The page says | The source says |
| :--- | :--- |
| females use their experience of being crowded to predict whether their young will hatch into a crowd, and change how the embryos develop to match | Female locusts use their experience of the extent and recency of being crowded to predict the probability that their offspring will emerge into a high-density population, and alter the development of their embryos accordingly |