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Locusts and grasshoppers (Orthoptera: Acrididae) are pests of agricultural importance, devastating crops and pastures. This group includes hundreds of pest species and affects the livelihoods of one in every ten people worldwide. Their outbreaks can be chronic or episodic, with alternating periods of invasion and recession. Here, we review the natu...
Locusts and other migratory grasshoppers are transboundary pests. Monitoring and control, therefore, involve a complex system made up of social, ecological, and technological factors. Researchers and those involved in active management are calling for more integration between these siloed but often interrelated sectors. In this paper, we bring toge...
This is the first field study in which we have tested the efficacy of four different entomopathogenic fungal (EPF) formulations together in single study—i.e., Green Muscle, Green Guard, Metarhizium anisopliae, and an isolate of Beauveria bassiana (isolate WG-11)—against nymphs and adults of the desert locust, Schistocerca gregaria Forskål (Orthopte...
In the first half of the twentieth century, the South American Locust (SAL), Schistocerca cancellata (Serville, 1838), was a major pest of agriculture in Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Brazil. From 1954–2014, a preventive management program appeared to limit SAL populations, with only small- to moderate-scale treatments required, limite...
The increased attention given to health, food security, and biodiversity conservation in recent years should bring together conventional scientists and indigenous people to share their knowledge systems for better results. This work aims to assess how grasshoppers are perceived by the local people in southern Cameroon, particularly in terms of food...
Locusts and grasshoppers (Orthoptera: Acridoidea) are among the most dangerous agricultural pests. Their control is critical to food security worldwide and often requires governmental or international involvement. Although acridid outbreaks are now better controlled and often shorter in duration and reduced in extent, large outbreaks, often promote...
Locusts and grasshoppers (Orthoptera: Acridoidea) are among the most dangerous agricultural pests. Their control is critical to food security worldwide and often requires governmental or international involvement. Although locust and grasshopper outbreaks are now better controlled and often shorter in duration and reduced in extent, large outbreaks...
Paranosema locustae is a gut parasite that has been applied widely in the control of grasshoppers in many parts of the world. Usually, P. locustae is transmitted horizontally via passive modes under natural conditions but in the current study, a positive transmission strategy of P. locustae was demonstrated. First, infection by P. locustae resulted...
Locusts and grasshoppers are major economic pests in China and are controlled by a strategy of preventive management where about 1.5 million ha are treated each year. The preventive management system aims to keep locusts and grasshoppers at lower densities, so that the dense swarms seen in the past are no longer common and crop and pasture damage m...
Trials with the naturally occurring fungus, Metarhizium acridum, were conducted against nymphs of the Italian locust, Calliptamus italicus, in Uzbekistan and in Georgia during 2010 and 2011. The trials were conducted in two quite different habitats: in western Uzbekistan, which is desert with a median annual rainfall of about 100 mm, and on the pla...
Field and laboratory studies demonstrated that Paranosema (Nosema) locustae had significant effects on the morphological phase transformation of Locusta migratoria manilensis (Meyen 1835). In the field, spraying P. locustae on gregarious locusts caused a substantial population reduction by 16 days after treatment, with most of the surviving locusts...
In Australia, locusts are controlled using an Integrated Pest Management (IPM) system that aims to find and rapidly treat most gregarious locust populations. Many outbreaks have significant breeding in the arid interior of Australia during summer and treatments begin in the interior, to keep locust invasions of the agricultural zone to manageable l...
The search for alternatives to the widespread use of chemicals to control locusts and grasshoppers has led to the development of mycoinsecticides based on Metarhizium anisopliae var. acridum. Two products are available commercially: Green Muscle® in Africa and Green Guard® in Australia. Only Green Guard® has been used in large control operations, w...
A project to develop a biological control strategy for locusts and grasshoppers is being conducted in Mexico. Major activities include: surveys of entomopathogenic fungi, laboratory screening of isolates, testing of methods for mass production, and formulation and field evaluation of virulent strains. The Centro Nacional de Referencia de Control Bi...
In Australia, where approximately 80% of the land area is arid or semiarid, rainfall is the major factor limiting acridid populations. Rainfall is not only limiting in terms of quantity but also in being highly variable, both temporally and spatially. In this paper, the main adaptations seen in Australian Acrididae to overcome limiting rainfall are...
The entomopathogenic fungus Metarhizium anisopliae var. acridum Metsch. Sor. (Deuteromycotina: Hyphomycetes), was tested under laboratory and field conditions against the Central American locust Schistocerca piceifrons Walker (Orthoptera: Acrididae). Adults of S. piceifrons treated under laboratory conditions with the isolate MaPL40, 1.5 × 103 coni...
Abstract The Australian Plague Locust Commission (APLC) is responsible for the monitoring and control of locust populations that pose a threat to agriculture in the inland areas of four Australian States, a total area of 2 million km2. A GIS-based decision support system (DSS) is used to co-ordinate the collection, processing, analysis and display...
Abstract The Decision Support System (DSS) used by the Australian Plague Locust Commission for management of several important migratory insect pests in Australia is described. The DSS is based on a Geographic Information System that integrates data on weather and habitat condition with the migration, development and distribution of the pest to pr...
The ability to detect nymphal bands quickly from an aircraft flying overhead is critical to the success of preventive control programmes against the Australian plague locust. Ground and aerial observations of bands over a 20-year period have revealed that marching bands, at least 30 m long with a dense front, are visible from an aircraft flying at...
The original locust control strategy assumed that plagues arose when swarms escaped from outbreak areas and bred successfully in the surrounding invasion area. Thus, control within outbreak areas could prevent plagues. Plague prevention was achieved for species with small, relatively accessible outbreak areas providing resources allocated to preven...
Cuticular hydrocarbon profiles were obtained for adult Chortoicetes terminifera collected from Bimerah in Queensland, Hillston and Boorowa in New South Wales, and Moora in Western Australia. No significant differences were found between male and female locusts from Bimerah, nor between males from any of the four different geographical locations.
Adults of the Australian plague locust, Chortoicetes terminifera (Walker) were found to maintain a high and nearly constant body temperature on sunny days; as a result, the duration of the growth period was relatively constant over a wide range of mean ambient temperatures. Flight occurred only when basking or roosting was not required for temperat...
Extremely dry conditions frequently result in the rapid decline of populations of Australian plague locust. Locust survival has been related to pasture growth using a pasture growth index. This index gives a measure of the effect of rainfall on growth of plants in a variety of climatic regimes and plant community types. Using the index on pasture c...
Stony downs consist of grassy areas that alternate with areas that have a substantial stone cover. The stone‐covered areas are impermeable, and most rain falling on them runs off, substantially increasing the effective rainfall in adjacent grassy areas. As a result, 20–25 mm of rain on stony downs wetted the soil around the grass to a depth of 140–...
Abstract The development of recent infestations of the Australian plague locust (Chortoicetes terminifera) (Walker) (Orthoptera: Acrididae) has been traced using traditional survey data combined with information from several modern technologies including simulation of windborne transport trajectories, direct observation with entomological radar and...
Abstract Locusts can form dense bands and swarms that can cause substantial damage to pastures and crops. For many years, State Departments of Agriculture aimed to protect crops by conducting locust control programs in their agricultural areas but in recent years the Australian Plague Locust Commission (APLC) has conducted preventive control progra...
Three isolates of Metarhiziumanisopliae var. acridum, FI-985,from the spur-throated locust, Austracrisguttulosa from Australia, and QF-01 and QF-02both from Schistocerca piceifrons inMexico were compared. FI-985 had much largerconidia than the other two isolates and alsohad a different colony appearance. The twoMexican isolates showed small differe...
Laboratory tests of Metarhizium anisopliae var acridum Driver & Milner, at a dose of 1.3 × 10 ⁶ conidia ml ⁻¹ , had no adverse effects on nymphs of mayfly, Ulmerophlebia sp or 8‐week‐old fry of the rainbow fish, Melanotaenia duboulayi Castelnau. This dose was toxic to the cladoceran, Ceriodaphnia dubia Richard, causing 100% mortality in 48 h. When...
This book, which is based on the main papers presented at the Royal Entomological Society's 20th Symposium held in September 1999, reviews the developments in the study of insect movements, particularly of flight. It contains 19 chapters discussing flight mechanisms (e.g. flight biomechanics, physiology and behaviour), foraging movements, migration...
Between October 1999 and April 2000, nearly 4000 ha of nymphal bands and adult swarms of Chortoicetes terminifera (Walker) were aerially treated using a ULV oil formulation of strain FI-985 of Metarhizium anisopliae var. acridum. During the mild weather (maxima 22-30 degrees C) of spring (October), there was little change in nymphal bands during th...
Locusts are important pests in warm, semi-arid regions of the world. Traditionally, chemical insecticides have been used to control bands and swarms, but this is coming under great scrutiny. Metarhizium anisopliae is an entomopathogenic fungus, which is formulated in an oil to produce a biopesticide that has been tested in several countries. In Aus...
Between November 1998 and March 1999, bands of nymphs of Locusta migratoria were aerially treated using a ULV oil formulation of strain FI-985 of Metarhizium anisopliae var. acridum. At a dose of 3–4×1012 conidia/ha, there was <10% survival of locusts in treated sorghum crops, open grassland or open woodland with grass. Decline was less at lower do...
Austracris guttulosa in northern Australia is similar to Nomadacris septemfasciata in the southern half of Africa in having one generation per year, mainly in tall grass plains that are seasonally flooded by rainfall and flooding rivers. Locusts survive the dry season as adults and after the early rains of the wet season, oviposit in bare areas. Yo...
In northern Australia, the spur-throated locust, Austracris guttulosa, has one generation per year with locusts surviving the dry season as immature adults. Adults lay after rain early in the wet season, mainly between October/November and January. On cracking clay soils, a fall of > 40 mm is required to allow oviposition, but to ensure survival of...
In eastern Australia, parasitism of eggs of the Australian plague locust, Chortoicetesterminifera (Walker) by the wasp Scelio fulgidus Crawford was surveyed between 1975 and 1994. In the arid interior, where most plagues of C. terminifera originate, parasitism was moderate to high (15-45% of eggpods), yet locusts increased to plague proportions in...
Management of locust populations requires an accurate understanding of the critical factors leading to population increase. The spur-throated locust, Austracris guttulosa (Walker), is common in tropical inland Queensland, with reproduction occurring during the summer wet season. The normal patchy rain in the inland means many areas do not receive r...
In tropical northern Australia, vitellogenesis in Austracris guttulosa only occurs if two requirements are met: daylength exceeds 13 h and vegetation is green. During the dry season (April-September), daylength is short and vitellogenesis is inhibited regardless of vegetation condition. Daylength exeeds 13 h by mid October, and vitellogenesis begin...
Factors involved in the origin of plagues of Schistocerca cancellata (Serville) in Argentina were examined using a simple model for locust development. Plagues were present in 48 of the 58 years between 1897–1954 with plague sequences occurring before 1900, 1903–11, 1913–28, 1931–38 and 1944–54. Plagues originated when winter rain fell in the outbr...
The environmental conditions that allow the growth of Barley Mitchell grass, Astrebla pectinata , and the development of the Australian plague locust, Chortoicetes terminifera , are similar. A single fall of more than 20 mm rain and a mean monthly maximum temperature above 23°C ensures sustained growth of Barley Mitchell grass and hatching of eggs...
Diapause in eggs of Chortoicetes terminifera (Walker) is associated with an increase in the temperature threshold for development at the late anatrepsis stage. For most of the year, the threshold for development at all stages of embryonic development is 16°C. but in autumn. development beyond late anatrepsis requires temperatures above about 26°C....
Samples of eggs of Chortoicetes terminifera were incubated under 3 temperature regimes which would allow non-diapause eggs to develop about 50% and so take them beyond the diapause stage. Even so, many more eggs entered diapause when reared at 20°C for 3 weeks than at 32°C for 1 week. By collecting and incubating eggs at intervals after laying in a...
Landsat imagery was used to distinguish classes of habitat in south west Queensland and nearby South Australia; the source area of major plagues of the Australian plague locust. Field surveys and published information were used to relate these classes to major habitat types. The field surveys further showed that locusts occurred predominantly in st...
In the field in eastern Australia, adult females of Chortoicetes terminifera (Wlk.) underwent stages of body growth, fat accumulation and then egg maturation. Rainfall, and the resulting condition of the feed, determined the speed of development through the stages. If feed was dry, development was slow and stages could be suppressed; but even with...
Long distance migration by adults of Chortoicetes terminifera (Wlk.) in Australia was shown to be associated with the accumulation of fat-body lipid. Lipid was accumulated if the plant growth index was 0·3 or more within a week of the final moult; when the plant growth index was less than 0·3, there was little fat accumulation. Locusts with large a...
Plague locusts, Chortoicetes terminifera (Walker), that emigrated from Longreach to Cunnamulla, Queensland, produced non-diapause eggs. Those that emigrated further to Tottenham, N.S.W. produced diapause eggs within 7 days indicating that diapause induction is rapid and can occur in fully grown adults.