Locusts
Abstract
What is a locust? A special type of grasshopper (Orthoptera: Acrididae) distinguished by expression of a remarkable and potentially devastating form of phenotypic plasticity, known as density-dependent phase polyphenism. Changes in local population density cause the development of strikingly different phenotypic forms, or 'phases' (Figure 1). Low population densities produce the shy, well-camouflaged 'solitarious' phase, whereas crowded conditions produce the aggregating, migratory 'gregarious' phase. Solitarious phase locusts avoid one another, but gregarious locusts can form huge groups and embark on spectacular mass migrations, travelling as marching bands of flightless juveniles and vast flying swarms of winged adults.
- Publication:
-
Current Biology
- Pub Date:
- 2008
- DOI:
- 10.1016/j.cub.2008.02.029
- Bibcode:
- 2008CBio...18.R364S