Live data from Hacker News

What are locusts and what happened to them?

explosion-scratch.github.io

1–10 of 80 posts

Re: What are locusts and what happened to them?

#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.

Re: What are locusts and what happened to them?

#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.

Re: What are locusts and what happened to them?

#9
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.

> I always imagined some twisted diminutive demonic swarm of insects

Behavioral ecologist Stephen Simpson has proposed the cannibalistic forced march hypothesis[36], that is, the forward motion of a locust swarm is essentially sustained by each individual’s imperative to avoid being eaten by the locust behind it: 1) Align their body axis with neighbors (parallel) to minimize the chances of a side-on attack and present their narrowest possible profile to the individual behind. 2) March forward to bite and feed on the abdomen of the locust immediately ahead.

A billion crazed insects marching through eating all your crops while cannibalizing each other does seem relatively twisted and demonic.

Post reply on HN