Kerala: Experts call for monitoring desert locust

KOZHIKODE: After a solitary desert locust (Schistocerca gregaria) was spotted near a house premises at Oorkatteri near Areakode in Malappuram on Wednesday night, experts have called for enhanced monitoring in the area.

Researcher Dhaneesh Bhaskar, member of the Species Survival Commission (Grasshopper Specialist Group) of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), who identified the insect as a desert locust, said that though the insects are not dangerous in the solitarious adult phase, the area where it has been sighted need to be monitored to see if there are more individuals in the vicinity.

The desert locust was sighted near the house of Suresh Babu at Chooladippara in Urangatiri grama panchayat and he has collected the insect. Solitary adult desert locusts have been spotted in the state previously also.

Dhaneesh said the area should be monitored to see if there are more insects in the locality and in that case, they could lay large number of eggs which could lead to mass emergence of nymphs in the next season. This could lead to possible formation of hopper bands and even swarms if the conditions are favourable then.

Dr T V Sajeev, scientist, department forest entomology at Kerala Forest Research Institute ( KFRI ), also said that the locust spotted in Malappuram was a solitary desert locust.

"As the sighting is of a lone adult desert locust in its solitarious phase, there is nothing to be alarmed about currently. It is in the adult gregarious migratory phase that locusts cause havoc," he added.

Desert locust is considered the most destructive migratory pest in the world and large parts of North India is currently reeling under an invasion by the swarms of desert locusts which are eating away crops.

Desert locusts have two phases, the solitary phase and the gregarious phase with marked differences in morphology and behaviour between the two phases. In the solitary phase the hoppers do not aggregate and form bands but move about independently and are innocuous.