EPOW - Ecology Picture of the Week

Desert Locust in Hiding

Locust (Schistocerca cf. gregaria), Family Acrididae
Ourika Valley, Morocco

Explanation:  Nicely hidden beneath, and clinging to, the cushion of this chair on the patio of a Berber village house is this locust, likely the widespread desert locust.  

We are in the Ourika Valley of the Atlas Mountains in northern Morocco, outside the city of Marrakesh.  We are not in the desert here, but the rocky Agafay Desert is but 25 miles (40 km) to the southeast, as the locust flies.  Still, here, we are apparently within the distribution of the locust's breeding area as well as within its range of population outbreaks, and certainly within its range of intercontinental migration.  

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations has declared the desert locust as "the most destructive migratory pest in the world."  Desert locusts are notorious for forming massive outbreaks that decimate agricultural plantations.  Some control mechanisms include using baits and dusting and sprays with insecticide, but further information is needed for effective control strategies (see Katel et al. 2021).

Here, I discovered a somewhat differently-colored desert locust
in the Sahara Desert of central Tunisia, also in North Africa.

Desert locust swarms often prefer to roost in tall desert plants.
But this encounter was of a lone individual, not part of a swarm,
although our bus did encounter a small swarm en route here,
pelting the windshield like hailstones.

    

Information:
     Feng, S., S. Shi, F. Ullah, X. Zhang, Y. Yin, S. Li, J.H. Nderitu, A. Ali, Y, Dong, W. Huang, G. Hu, Z. Zhang, and X. Tu.  2024.  Intercontinental migration facilitates continuous occurrence of the desert locust Schistocerca gregaria (Forsk., 1775) in Africa and Asia.  Agronomy 14(7):1567; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy14071567.
     Katel, S., H.R. Mandal, P. Neupane, S. Timsina, P. Pokhrel, A. Katuwal, S. Subedi, J. Shrestha, and K. Shah.  2021.  Desert locust (Schistocerca gregaria Forskal) and its management: a review.  Journal of Agricultural and Applied Biology 2(1):61-69. DOI:10.11594/jaab.02.01.08.
     Maeno, K.O., S.O. Ely, S'A.O. Mohamed, M. El Hacen Jaavar, and M.A.O.B. Ebbe.  2020.  Adult desert locust swarms, Schistocerca gregaria, preferentially roost in the tallest plants at any given site in the Sahara Desert.  Agronomy 10(12):1923; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy10121923.