Integrated Management Practices against Desert Locust, Schistocerca gregaria (Forksal) in India
Ankit Upadhyay1 , Ekta Ghosh2 , Debdutta3
1Department of Agricultural Entomology, Chandra Shekhar Azad University of Agriculture and Technology, Kanpur, U.P, India
2Department of Paediatrics, All India Institute of Medical Science – New Delhi, India
3Department of Computer Science, IIT BHU, India
Corresponding Author Email: ankitupadhyay.bhu@gmail.com
Abstract
Locusts are the group of different species of short horned grasshoppers belonging to the family Acrididae (Order: Orthoptera). These are a special type of grasshoppers having the capacity of changing their habits and behavior when in large numbers and are regarded as a major threat to agriculture from the beginning of human civilization. Locusts are generally differentiated from grasshoppers with their swarm forming ability, body shape, size and color changing morphological characters. When adult locusts are in large numbers, they show gregarious behavior called swarms. Similarly, gregarious behavior shown by larval stage (hopper) is called as bands. Swarms of desert locust can fly large distances up to 150 km in the direction of wind, containing a group of millions and billions of individuals. Moreover, bands formed by S. gregaria hopper can march up to 1.5 km in a day (FAO, 2020).