African migratory locust
| African migratory locust | |
|---|---|
| Solitary adult male in Tanzania | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Orthoptera |
| Suborder: | Caelifera |
| Family: | Acrididae |
| Genus: | Locusta |
| Species: | L. migratoria |
| Subspecies: | L. m. migratorioides |
| Trinomial name | |
| Locusta migratoria migratorioides (Fairmaire & L.J. Reiche, 1849) | |
Locusta migratoria migratorioides, commonly known as the African migratory locust, is a subspecies of the migratory locust family Acrididae.
It occurs in most of Africa south of the Sahara Desert, but its main breeding ground, and the original source of most plagues, is on the floodplains of the Niger River in West Africa. Much of the time, this locust adopts a solitary lifestyle, but under certain conditions, it becomes gregarious; the young nymphs, known as hoppers, form bands that move together and the adult insects form swarms that may reach plague proportions. Plagues of this locust took place from 1891 to 1903 and again from 1928 to 1941. After many years without outbreaks of the insects, further plagues occurred in the last two decades of the 20th century.