State of the Art Management of the Central American Locust Schistocerca piceifrons piceifrons (Walker, 1870)

Abstract

The Central American locust (CAL), Schistocerca piceifrons piceifrons (Walker, 1870), is a transboundary pest that is distributed from Mexico to Panama. It is a true locust species characterized by density-dependent phase polyphenism. The ancient record of the CAL is found in the Popol Vuh, the Mayan sacred book, demonstrating how it has affected humans for millennia. In Mexico, the CAL have been declared a national threat to agriculture since 1824. Serious locust plagues occurred in 1882–1883 when swarms of 20 km2 in size invaded the Yucatán Peninsula and neighboring states in southern Mexico and, since then, management actions to suppress populations and economic damage have been implemented. A better understanding of the biology, ecology, and behavior of the CAL replaced a manual and mechanical collection of locust swarms, hopper bands, and egg pods with modern techniques such as the use of safer chemical products and environmentally friendly bioinsecticides. Presently, biomodels and GIS support the monitoring and forecasting of outbreaks. Currently, studies are conducted to investigate environmental factors that trigger locust gregarization, the evolution of phase polyphenism, and CAL bioactive compounds and nutritional contents, envisioning its potential use in biotechnological industries. Findings will be crucial to improve the management strategies of the CAL.

The time course of behavioural phase change in the Central American locust Schistocerca piceifrons

“…Additionally, our study represents the first time that the effect of density during the crowding treatment was tested (but see Cisse et al, 2015b and Heifetz et al, 1996 for the long-term effect of rearing density on behaviour). The density used in our gregarisation experiment equals approximately 100 individuals m −2 , which is well below the high densities found in active hopper bands ( Barrientos-Lozano et al, 2021 ). However, increasing or decreasing the density did not significantly alter the gregarisation state of the locusts, and the lowest median P greg was in fact observed at the highest rearing density.…”

“…In the present study, we characterised the temporal process of phase change in the Central American locust Schistocerca piceifrons (Walker 1870), a serious pest in Mexico and Central America that causes enormous agricultural damage ( Barrientos-Lozano et al, 2021 ; Cullen et al, 2017 ). It is a tropical locust species that exhibits classic locust phase polyphenism in terms of behaviour, morphology, colour and gene expression ( Barrientos-Lozano et al, 1992 ; Bredo, 1963 ; Foquet et al, 2021 ; Harvey, 1983 ), but the process of behavioural phase change has not yet been thoroughly characterised in this species (but see Foquet and Song, 2021 ).…”

What Have We Learned after Millennia of Locust Invasions?

“…Barrientos et al [75] present a review of the Central American Locust, Schistocerca piceifrons piceifrons, an important transboundary pest distributed from Mexico to Panama. The paper covers life history, habitat, ecology, permanent breeding areas, band and swarm formation, phase polyphenism, gregarization and migration.…”

Población de langosta centroamericana (Schistocerca piceifrons) en la isla Socorro y su impacto sobre la vegetación

“…Las langostas voladoras son insectos que han despertado gran interés en la comunidad científica, debido a la creciente evidencia de picos poblacionales que consumen fracciones importantes de la productividad vegetal, principalmente en sistemas agrícolas, pero también en sistemas naturales y estas explosiones demográficas han sido documentadas históricamente (Bennett, 1975;Peng et al, 2020). Su distribución en el mundo tropical se ha extendido, tanto en ambientes continentales como insulares, por lo que entender su biología y comportamiento ecológico resulta estratégico para la seguridad alimentaria y para la conservación de la biodiversidad (Barrientos-Lozano et al, 2021).…”

“…En América, una de las especies más conocidas es la langosta del caribe, Schistocerca piceifrons (Walker, F., 1870), cuya presencia en México se reporta en regiones del trópico seco como Yucatán, la costa del Pacífico, y también en varias islas como es el caso del archipiélago de Revillagigedo (Barrientos-Lozano et al, 2021).…”