Locusts

[Dynasty]

Yuck. I think I might freak out if I got caught in the middle of one of these swarms.

News article (http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=574&u=/nm/20041117/wl_nm/egypt_locusts_dc_5&printer=1)

http://us.news1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/rids/20041117/i/r2753479869.jpg

[NLSoldier]

Are those pyramids in the backround? Saweet!

[Chah Ngo]

I think I got that same poster in my Dark Side of the Moon album . . .

[wacki]

Mayflies are in some parts of the US, and they get so bad they show up on radar.

http://www.crh.noaa.gov/dtx/images/mayfly6.jpg

[andyfox]

I was in Vegas once where there was a similar invasion. Can't remember whether it was locusts or some other related insect. Must have been about 25 years ago.

Are locusts harmful to humans, or just to agriculture?

[wacki]

Just agriculture. They can't harm you unless you choke on them, but this has been known to happen with dogs a lot. They also can clog up machinery.

[Topflight]

Nasty

[Lazymeatball]

Anyone see the movie 'Hidalgo?'
There's a good locust scene in it

[lu_hawk]

One of the more interesting things I've read about biology is how locusts evolved to get into a 17 year cycle.

The theory is that locusts had a specialized predator that preyed upon them. There are a lot of ways to defend yourself from predators but the locusts evolved to not come out every year in order to try to starve out their predator in the in between years. Initially they probably just skipped one year and were on a 2 year cycle. So the predator went to a 2 year cycle, and it became an arms race, with the length of the cycles increasing.

If the locusts went to say a 6 year cycle and the predators were on a 3 year cycle then there would be an overlap every 2 times for the predator where they would be out at the same time. So if the predators could make it through one year without locusts then they could hibernate for another 3 years and that time around food would be plentiful for them because the locusts would be around too. So just going to a longer cycle wouldn't necessarily defend the locusts because the predators could be on a shorter cycle but still always be around when the locusts were around.

So the amazing part is that 17 years is a prime number and avoids this problem.