the.com/locust
a shy grasshopper that mobs up, changes color, and devours a country.
means A grasshopper that, under crowded conditions, transforms behavior and appearance to swarm in vast destructive migrations, devouring crops across whole regions.
from From Latin 'locusta,' which oddly named both the leaping insect and the lobster — perhaps because both are armored, jointed, and somewhat alarming. It traveled through Old French 'locuste' into English. The biblical plagues cemented the word's dread; the eighth plague of Egypt was a swarm of these, and 'wild locusts' fed John the Baptist in the wilderness, though some argue that was the carob pod, the 'locust bean' — a tasty etymological tangle that lingers in 'locust tree.'
- trigger
- Crowding alters their brain chemistry within hours
- appetite
- A swarm eats its own weight daily
- swarm size
- Billions can darken skies for miles
- body morph
- Loneliness and crowds grow different-shaped bugs
- serotonin
- The same chemical that calms you swarms them
desert locust — covered 20% of earth's land surface during 2020 outbreak across east africa and asia
moroccan locust — caused famine in north africa and middle east, documented since ancient egyptian times