LOCUST

in botany, any tree of the genus Robinia within the pea family (Fabaceae). About 20 species are known, all occurring in eastern North America and Mexico. The best known is the black locust (R. pseudoacacia), often called false acacia, or yellow locust. It is widely cultivated in Europe as an ornamental. It grows to 24 m (80 feet) high and bears long, compound leaves with 6 to 20 oblong leaflets. The fragrant white flowers hang in loose clusters. There are many varieties, some thornless. It has long been used for erosion control and as a timber tree. The so-called honey locust (q.v.), also of the pea family, is a North American tree commonly used as an ornamental and often found in hedges. species of short-horned grasshopper (orthopteran family Acrididae) that often increases greatly in number and migrates long distances in destructive swarms. In Europe the word locust connotes large size; smaller acridids are called grasshoppers. In North America the names locust and grasshopper are used for any acridid. A cicada (order Homoptera) also may be called a locust; the 17-year locust actually is the periodic, or 17-year, cicada (see cicada). The grouse (or pygmy) locust is a member of the family Tetrigidae (see pygmy grasshopper). A phase theory has been developed to account for the sporadic appearance and disappearance of locust swarms. According to the theory a plague species has two phases; one solitary, the other gregarious. The phases can be distinguished by differences in coloration, form, physiology, and behaviour of the species. A solitary phase nymph, for example, adjusts its coloration to match that of its surroundings; it does not collect in groups, has low metabolic and oxygen-intake rates, and is sluggish. A gregarious phase nymph, on the other hand, has black and yellow (orange) coloration in a fixed pattern, gathers in large groups, has high metabolic and oxygen intake rates, and is active and nervous. Adult locusts differ more in form than in colour. The solitary phase has shorter wings, longer legs, and a narrower pronotum, or dorsal sclerite (with higher crest and larger head), than the gregarious. The adult of this phase has a more saddle-shaped pronotum, broader shoulders, and long wings. When a nymph of a solitary phase locust matures in the presence of many other locusts, it changes toward a gregarious type; if crowding is sufficiently dense and of long enough duration the gregarious migratory phase results. The young of a gregarious phase locust, on the other hand, reverts to the solitary phase if it matures in isolation. The solitary phase is the normal state of the species; the gregarious phase is a physiological response to violent fluctuations in the environment. Migratory swarms do not form in regions favourable for the growth of a species; instead they form in regions, called marginal regions, in which suitable habitats are scarce. A succession of favourable seasons enables a restricted population to expand in numbers so that individuals are forced into marginal areas. When unfavourable environmental conditions occur in the marginal regions the enlarged populations are forced to return to the small, permanently habitable areas; crowding results. A gregarious phase locust is restless and irritable; it flies spontaneously on warm, dry days when its body temperature is high. The muscular activity of flight further raises its temperature. A swarm ceases flying only when environmental conditions change; e.g., rain falls, temperature decreases, or darkness occurs. In 1869 desert locust swarms reached England, probably from West Africa, and a flight across the Red Sea in 1889 was estimated as about 2,000 square miles in size. The range of the migratory locust (Locusta migratoria) is wider than that of any other acridid. It is found in grasslands throughout Africa, most of Eurasia south of the Taiga Forest, the East Indies, tropical Australia, and New Zealand. The desert locust (Schistocerca gregaria) inhabits dry grasslands and deserts from Africa to the Punjab and can fly upward to about 5,000 feet in huge towers. The smaller Italian and Moroccan locusts (Calliptamus italicus and Dociostaurus maroccanus) cause extensive plant damage in the Mediterranean area; the second species can be found as far east as Turkestan. In South Africa the brown and red locusts (Locustana pardalina and Nomadacris septemfasciata) are extremely destructive. In Central and South America the chief migratory species is the South American locust (Schistocerca paranensis); the nonmigratory S. americana (found in the United States) may be a solitary phase of this genus. The Rocky Mountain locust and the migratory grasshopper (Melanoplus spretus and M. sanguinipes, respectively) destroyed many prairie farms in Canada and the United States in the 1870s. Many other species occasionally increase sufficiently in numbers to be called plagues. Once developed, a locust plague is almost impossible to stop or control. Control measures include destroying egg masses laid by invading swarms; digging trenches to trap nymphs; using hopperdozers, wheeled screens, that cause locusts to fall into troughs containing water and kerosene; using poison baits; and dusting and spraying swarms and breeding grounds from aircraft. In 1945 the Anti-Locust Research Centre was begun in London; its purpose is to record and project locust outbreaks and migrations, to issue warnings to threatened countries, and to plan and supervise control measures. The centre also conducts research on the life cycle of the locust and other characteristics.