Kistner, D. H. (1979). Social and evolutionary significance of social insect symbionts. In H. R. Herman (Ed.), Social insects (Vol. I, pp. 339–413). San Francisco/London: Academic. a b Showler, Allan T. (4 March 2013). "The Desert Locust in Africa and Western Asia: Complexities of War, Politics, Perilous Terrain, and Development". Radcliffe's IPM World Textbook. University of Minnesota. Archived from the original on 8 April 2015 . Retrieved 3 April 2015. Aristotle studied locusts and their breeding habits and Livy recorded a devastating plague in Capua in 203 BC. He mentioned human epidemics following locust plagues which he associated with the stench from the putrifying corpses; the linking of human disease outbreaks to locust plagues was widespread. A pestilence in the northwestern provinces of China in 311 AD that killed 98% of the population locally was blamed on locusts, and may have been caused by an increase in numbers of rats (and their fleas) that devoured the locust carcasses. [36] Recent times [ edit ] Locusts which swarmed over England in 1748: Drawing by De la Cour; engraved by R. White, in Thomas Pennant's A Tour in Wales, 1781 Morris GM, Kline C, Morris SM. Status of Danaus plexippus population in Arizona. J Lepid Soc. 2015;69:91–107. These changes are examples of phase polyphenism; they were first analysed and described by Boris Uvarov, who was instrumental in setting up the Anti-Locust Research Centre. [10] He made his discoveries during his studies of the migratory locust in the Caucasus, whose solitary and gregarious phases had previously been thought to be separate species ( Locusta migratoria and L. danica L.). He designated the two phases as solitaria and gregaria. [11] These are also referred to as statary and migratory morphs, though strictly speaking, their swarms are nomadic rather than migratory. Charles Valentine Riley and Norman Criddle were also involved in achieving the understanding and control of locusts. [12] [13]

Army ants is the name given to some 200 species of predatory and nomadic hymenoptera. But, despite their bad reputation, they also help control the enormous numbers of insect inhabitants in the terrains that they roam through. Role of the Australian Plague Locust Commission". Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. Commonwealth of Australia. 14 June 2011. Archived from the original on 15 July 2014 . Retrieved 2 April 2015. Leiningen Versus the Ants" – fanciful 1938 short story by Carl Stephenson about soldier ants swarming over a Brazilian plantationChapman JW, Nesbit RL, Burgin LE, Reynolds DR, Smith AD, Middleton DR, et al. Flight orientation behaviors promote optimal migration trajectories in high-flying insects. Science. 2010;327:682–5. Webster MS, Marra PP, Haig SM, Bensch S, Holmes RT. Links between worlds: unraveling migratory connectivity. Trends Ecol Evol. 2002;17:76–83. Majd, Hooman (23 September 2008). The Ayatollah Begs to Differ: The paradox of modern Iran. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. pp.165ff. ISBN 978-0-385-52842-9. Taylor LR. Insect migration, flight periodicity and the boundary layer. J Anim Ecol. 1974;43:225–38. Historically, people could do little to protect their crops from locusts, although eating the insects may have been some compensation. By the early 20th century, efforts were made to disrupt the development of the insects by cultivating the soil where eggs were laid, collecting hoppers with catching machines, killing them with flamethrowers, trapping them in ditches, and crushing them with rollers and other mechanical methods. [20] By the 1950s, the organochloride dieldrin was found to be an extremely effective insecticide, but it was later banned in most countries because of its persistence in the environment and its accumulation in the food chain. [20] Cessna of the International Red Locust Control Organization spraying red locusts in Iku Katavi National Park, Tanzania, 2009

a b Kronauer, Daniel J. C.; Schöning, Caspar; d'Ettorre, Patricia; Boomsma, Jacobus J. (2010). "Colony fusion and worker reproduction after queen loss in army ants". Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 277 (1682): 755–763. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2009.1591. PMC 2842746. PMID 19889701. Secondly, in the bird literature, migratory connectivity is usually discussed in terms of the degree of mixing, on the wintering grounds or along the migratory routes, of individuals from discrete breeding populations (sometimes separated by regions of unsuitable habitat or barriers [ 19]). By contrast, many insect migrants have annual, to-and-fro movements between extensive latitudinal zones (e.g., between northern temperate Europe and the Mediterranean Basin), without any clear form of geographical structuring or discrete populations across their broad range [ 13, 14, 20, 21]. In bird connectivity terms, these may be regarded as having very low or no connectivity, because they may be considered as a single, completely mixed, population. However, within these broad zones of summer-breeding and winter-breeding habitat, there may still be a degree of connectivity, for example if individuals that developed in the western part of the summer-breeding range migrate exclusively or principally to the western part of the winter-breeding range, and vice versa (as probably occurs in the painted lady butterfly, Vanessa cardui [ 22]). Thus, if we extend the definition of migratory connectivity to consider the degree of linkage within sections of a continuous and extensive range, then insect migratory circuits can be encompassed within the connectivity framework. Benyamini D. A swarm of millions of Vanessa cardui (Linnaeus, 1758) in winter-spring 2015-2016 in the south-East Mediterranean - the missing link. Atalanta. 2017;48:103–28.a b "Red Locust disaster in Eastern Africa prevented". Food and Agriculture Organization. 24 June 2009 . Retrieved 1 April 2015. Brady, Seán G; Fisher, Brian L; Schultz, Ted R; Ward, Philip S (2014). "The rise of army ants and their relatives: diversification of specialized predatory doryline ants". BMC Evolutionary Biology. 14: 2–14. doi: 10.1186/1471-2148-14-93. PMC 4021219. PMID 24886136.