About Schistocerca gregaria

The desert locust is a species of locust, a periodically swarming, short-horned grasshopper in the family Acrididae. They are found primarily in the deserts and dry areas of northern and eastern Africa, Arabia, and southwest Asia. During population surge years, they may extend north into parts of western Spain and southern Italy, south into Eastern Africa, and east in northern India. The desert locust shows periodic changes in its body form and can change in response to environmental conditions, over several generations, from a solitary, shorter-winged, highly fecund, non-migratory form to a gregarious, long-winged, and migratory phase in which they may travel long distances into new areas. In some years, they may thus form locust plagues, invading new areas, where they may consume all vegetation including crops, and at other times, they may live unnoticed in small numbers.

Picture credit: Public domain via Wikimedia Commons (Image source) Taxonomy ID 7010

(Text from Wikipedia.)

More information General information about this species can be found in Wikipedia

Taxonomy ID 7010

Data source Agricultural Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture

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