What are locusts and what happened to them? • Hacker News Board

Re: What are locusts and what happened to them?

#11

Post by hagbard_c » Sat, May 30, 2026, 12:57 PM UTC

daoboy wrote: post #8

My earliest introduction to locusts was as a biblical plague. These Sunday school lessons did not include pictures. I always imagined some twisted diminutive demonic swarm of insects, and was disappointed to finally discover they were just grasshoppers.

Put them under a microscope at 10-40 times magnification and you've got your demons. Claws and hooks and fang-like attachments everywhere, faceted eyes, crusty exterior. The western image of demons was partly derived from insectoid creatures by painters like Hieronymus Bosch so it makes sense for insects to look demonic.

Re: What are locusts and what happened to them?

#12

Post by jeremytarpley » Sat, May 30, 2026, 1:02 PM UTC

Great article. I'm also impressed by the design of the webpage itself. Love the typography and clever UI.

Re: What are locusts and what happened to them?

#13

Post by Aboutplants » Sat, May 30, 2026, 1:04 PM UTC

password4321 wrote: post #2

A nice weekend read that doesn't smell like AI but if you're short on time or interest: Though the locusts had a huge migratory range stretching all the way to the eastern seaboard, its reproductive range was only a handful of river valleys in Wyoming and Montana. Once plowed, irrigated and trampled by livestock the species had nowhere left to lay eggs.

I immediately thought of how destroying the Monarch Butterfly wintering grounds in Mexico would have the same impact on Monarchs.

Re: What are locusts and what happened to them?

#14

Post by cbdevidal » Sat, May 30, 2026, 1:13 PM UTC

jeremytarpley wrote: post #12

Great article. I'm also impressed by the design of the webpage itself. Love the typography and clever UI.

The jumping grasshoppers at the bottom really surprised me :-)

Re: What are locusts and what happened to them?

#15

Post by card_zero » Sat, May 30, 2026, 1:15 PM UTC

Is it really true about the unpalatable chickens? Every mention of "caloptine" that I can find is from 1878, and derives from the annual Report of the United States entomological commission, which expressed hope of making commercial locust products, mainly formic acid. That entomological comission is the cited Charles Riley. Nobody ever seems to mention the substance again.

Re: What are locusts and what happened to them?

#16

Post by skywhopper » Sat, May 30, 2026, 1:29 PM UTC

card_zero wrote: post #15

Is it really true about the unpalatable chickens? Every mention of "caloptine" that I can find is from 1878, and derives from the annual Report of the United States entomological commission, which expressed hope of making commercial locust products, mainly formic acid. That entomological comission is the cited Charles Riley. Nobody ever seems to mention the substance again.

Took a few clicks to track down source 10: https://history.nebraska.gov/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/doc_..., which in turn cites this book: https://www.amazon.com/Locust-Devastating-Mysterious-Disappe...

On that page you can click “read sample” and then search for “chicken” and the reference on page 3 seems to be the main source of that claim. Where that is quoting, I’m not sure.

Re: What are locusts and what happened to them?

#17

Post by dnnddidiej » Sat, May 30, 2026, 1:41 PM UTC

Trigger warning: animated insect crawls on screen.

Re: What are locusts and what happened to them?

#18

Post by swiftcoder » Sat, May 30, 2026, 1:48 PM UTC

> All of these triggers cause a release of serotonin. This serotonin release triggers the physical transformation

Locusts are just grasshoppers on prozac?

Re: What are locusts and what happened to them?

#19

Post by torben-friis » Sat, May 30, 2026, 1:58 PM UTC

dnnddidiej wrote: post #17

Trigger warning: animated insect crawls on screen.

Yes, this should be higher. I fucking hated that.

Re: What are locusts and what happened to them?

#20

Post by card_zero » Sat, May 30, 2026, 2:03 PM UTC

skywhopper wrote: post #16

card_zero wrote: post #15

Is it really true about the unpalatable chickens? Every mention of "caloptine" that I can find is from 1878, and derives from the annual Report of the United States entomological commission, which expressed hope of making commercial locust products, mainly formic acid. That entomological comission is the cited Charles Riley. Nobody ever seems to mention the substance again.

Took a few clicks to track down source 10: https://history.nebraska.gov/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/doc_... , which in turn cites this book: https://www.amazon.com/Locust-Devastating-Mysterious-Disappe... On that page you can click “read sample” and then search for “chicken” and the reference on page 3 seems to be the main source of that claim. Where that is quoting, I’m not sure.

Thanks! So the connection between the tainted taste (source on that still unknown) and this essential oil of locust is just Lockwood spitballing:

> Although the insects had no defensive chemicals in their bodies, a diet saturated with locusts rendered the eggs and flesh of chickens inedible. Studies at the time found that the locusts were remarkably rich in a “reddish-brown oil of very pungent and penetrating odor,” and perhaps this accounts for the tainted meat.

They were not "rich" in this oil:

https://archive.org/details/firstanuualrepor01unit/page/442/...

Oil, .004 percent. Still, a little oil can go a long way, so perhaps.