Humans came from the time when they drank blood, millions of years ago, our ancestors did not domesticate animals and plants, and their survival depended on gathering and hunting. However, hunting is not easy, because hunting means going to the territory of predators, and herbivores are basically "fast runners", so a considerable part of the meat sources of human ancestors are supported by various insects.
It is precisely because our ancestors had a long history of eating insects that even today, our food still contains many insects, such as cicadas, silkworm pupae and grasshoppers.
Among these edible insects, grasshoppers are our most common, I remember when I was a child, every autumn, I took my brother to the field to catch all kinds of grasshoppers, there was no refrigerator at home at that time, my mother thought of a good way to store it for a long time, that is, first wash the grasshoppers, then steam them in a large pot, and then put them in the sun to tie their mouths, so that even if they are in the New Year, they can be eaten, and it is still a "hard dish" for entertaining relatives and friends during the New Year.
Although grasshoppers provide people with high-quality protein, from a human perspective, they are pests because they gnaw on crops, causing yield losses, and once they are allowed to gather to form large sizes, there will be a much-talked-about locust plague.
According to the data, from the beginning of the Xia Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty, there were more than 800 large-scale locust plagues on the mainland, and each large-scale locust plague represented a serious famine, people were displaced, and corpses were strewn across the field. Speaking of which, some friends may have questions: Since humans have a long history of eating locusts, why don't they eat locusts to get through the plague? The reasons are actually more complicated.
What is a locust?
Above we mentioned grasshoppers and locusts, many people think that this is the relationship between the colloquial name and the scientific name, but in fact it is not, grasshoppers are actually a common name for grasshoppers, and grasshoppers are a collective term for all insects under the order Orthoptera.
Since we mentioned the orthoptera, let's briefly talk about the two large members of the order, the first is the swordtail suborder, the swordtail suborder contains crickets and crickets, etc., our common crickets, cockroaches and mole crickets and other insects are under the order, their females have a sword-like ovipositor, and the antennae on the head are very long, close to or even greater than the body length.
Female Chinese Cyprinus
The second is the cone-tailed suborder, the insect ovipositor under the cone-tailed suborder is relatively short, like a small awl, the antennae on their heads are less than half of the body length, we often say that the grasshopper is actually the collective name of all members of the suborder, including the general family of grasshoppers, the general family of locusts, the general family of locusts (also known as the general family of grasshoppers) and so on, so the grasshopper is actually the first word of the grasshopper family and the grasshopper family.
And the locusts we are talking about are actually single-fingered grasshoppers in the locust family, their biggest difference from other grasshoppers is that the antennae are significantly longer than the head length, and the dorsal plate of the chest is more regular, in comparison, the grasshopper dorsal plate under the grasshopper family extends to the tail, and the grasshopper dorsal plate under the grasshopper family is irregular triangular from the side.
At present, the grasshoppers known to form locust plagues are all under the locust family, for example, the locust plague that began to sweep East Africa in 2020 was caused by desert locusts under the swordhorned locust family of the locust family, and the locust plague that caused the most on the mainland was the East Asian flying locust, which is an insect under the locust family Spot-winged locust family.
Therefore, the real locust is the collective name of all grasshoppers under the general family of locusts, and has nothing to do with the general family of grasshoppers and the general family of grasshoppers, the same is that under normal circumstances, insects under these three general families can be fried into delicious.
East Asian flying locust, commonly known as Qingtou Lang in our hometown
How did the locust plague form?
The locust family is a large family of more than 10,000 different species, which are found in tropical and temperate regions of the world, even deserts, and the protagonist of the African locust plague in 2020 is the desert locust living in the desert of East Africa.
However, under normal circumstances, locusts have almost no intersection except mating, even the huge Chinese giant locust (also known as cotton locust, we commonly known as kicking down the mountain) is the same, when I was a child, I caught many Chinese giant locusts, they like some small locust trees in the wild, I have never caught two Chinese giant locusts of the same sex on a small locust tree.
Chinese giant locust
If this is the case, why do they suddenly form groups and form locust plagues? This is related to the fact that the extremes of things must be reversed. Under normal circumstances, locusts tend to move singly, with a maximum of two, but when the environment changes dramatically, they change their habits and become "social animals", and the upheaval here is usually related to rainfall.
If an area is originally dry and rainless, and suddenly rainfall, it will lead to the formation of locust plagues, and vice versa, this can refer to the African locust plague in 2020 is because of frequent rainfall in the East African desert, which will make the desert locust with a very low egg hatchability qualitatively change, and a large number of eggs successfully hatch under the blessing of water.
Vice versa, it is what our ancients said "drought must be locusts", when the drought continues, some riverbeds are exposed in a large area, which gives locusts a lot of egg-laying space, not only improves the hatchability of eggs, but also increases the number of individuals who lay eggs, so locusts broke out.
Since deserts and droughts are starved of food, so many locusts hatch intensively, they must look for food, and at this time they begin to assemble, forming a large-scale locust plague that is fearful and helpless. Because locusts are herbivorous and abundant, they have almost no grass wherever they pass, which is a huge famine for humans.
Locusts can eat, why not eat locusts to get by?
In ancient times, every large-scale locust plague can trigger a large-scale famine and take thousands of lives, but from the perspective of food, locusts can not only eat, but also rich in protein, carbohydrates, amino acids and other trace elements, is a relatively high nutritional level of food, it is because of this, many insectivorous birds one of the main prey is locusts.
Shrike who eats locusts
So if this is the case, why don't people eat locusts to get through the plague? There are three reasons for this:
First: limited collection. When the locust plague, although the locusts cover the sky, but if you really want to catch them to become the main food source is more difficult, because the locust plague of locusts has a characteristic "particularly flying", so it is very difficult to catch, from the perspective of food, a person has to eat at least a hundred locusts a day to ensure their food needs, and famine is continuous, even if we catch a few sacks, the family will soon eat up, so the limited amount of collection is one of the reasons why locusts cannot survive the famine.
Second: length of stay. Take the East African locust plague, their density reaches a terrifying number of 150 million per square kilometer, these locusts are constantly feeding and flying, in an area, the stay time is very short, because in just one day, they can eat 35,000 people, so they must continue to fly.
This really leaves very little time for people in an area to catch, that is, locusts take away everything we can eat (only big trees are left, the bark can gnaw), but the opportunity to catch us is fleeting.
Third: locust plagues cannot be eaten. When the author checked some documentary materials of locust plagues, he found a phenomenon, whether it is written data or video data, there is no animal figure, they are birds. It stands to reason that none of the insectivorous birds can refuse the temptation of locusts, but when the locust plague breaks out, we can't see the birds catching locusts in the sky, apparently not because the birds are frightened by the locust army, but for another reason.
The research team composed of Academician Recreation of the Continental Academy of Sciences and associate researcher Wei Jianing found the answer for us, it turns out that locusts can switch from living alone to living in groups because of a change in a gene in their bodies, which causes them to release the volatile compound phenylacetonitrile, which is almost undetectable in solitary locusts.
Phenylacetonitrile, also known as benzyl cyanide, is listed as the third class of precursor chemicals control, it itself has a certain irritation, animals inhalation will produce headache, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, lethargy, upper respiratory tract irritation, loss of consciousness and other symptoms. Obviously, the birds also smelled this dangerous breath, so they did not take advantage of the locust plague to feast.
It is also the production of this volatile compound that gives them a sense and behavior of living in groups, but this is not the end, because when locust plagues encounter threats, such as being caught, the phenylacecyanogen in their bodies will be converted into hydrocyanic acid, which is a highly toxic substance that is not only volatile, flammable, but also fatal.
Catching such locusts back, even if they can fill their stomachs, the accumulation of hydrocyanic acid in the body is enough to kill people, and this is the real reason why people prefer to catch locusts and crush them rather than eat them during locust plagues.
summary
Locusts, like other grasshoppers, were originally solitary insects, but when the environment changes drastically, resulting in a large increase in their numbers, some changes will occur in their bodies, and this change will cause them to change from solitary to gregarious, due to the lack of food and the increase in numbers, they begin to sweep in clusters, forming a locust plague.
In the locust plague, although there are many locusts, people would rather gnaw the bark than eat locusts, the main reason is that the locusts of the plague are highly poisonous, and they are fast, even if they can eat, they cannot become a sustainable food.