ABSTRACT
Agriculture sector has faced plagues of desert locusts (Schistocerca gregaria) across many areas of Asia, Africa, and Middle East. Their swarms have ability to fly up to large distance making them a potential insect for economically important crops, such as wheat, maize, sorghum, and others. Locust invasion is a severe threat to food security directly by destroying the livelihoods of the entire farming community as well as other associated sectors. Semi-arid areas are more prone to locust attack, thus, these regions face a “double” threats in the form of lesser rains, extreme temperature fluctuations. Insect pest attacks under such conditions aggravate the situation. Under such circumstances, there is a dire need to understand the complete ecological setup of the desert locust for ensuring accurate and timely control measures to be adopted especially in the case of plagues. This chapter will solely elaborate the complete ecological and morphological aspects of the insect and a special emphasis is made on the attack mechanisms, crisis situations, control mechanisms, and the effects on crops during the last decade.
