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An irresistible scent makes locusts swarm, study finds:
On its own, a locust is fairly harmless. But so-called solitary locusts can undergo a metamorphosis, changing colour and joining together with millions of others in catastrophic clouds that strip fields.
So what prompts locusts to transform from solitary to "gregarious"?
A study published Wednesday in the journal Nature reveals the secret lies in a pheromone.
Almost like an irresistible perfume, the chemical compound is emitted by locusts when they find themselves in proximity to just a few others of their kind.
The chemical attracts other locusts, who join the group and also begin emitting the scent, creating a feedback loop that results in enormous swarms.
The discovery offers several tantalizing possibilities, including genetically engineering locusts without the receptors that detect the swarming pheromone, or weaponising the pheromone to attract and trap the insects.
[...] It focused on the migratory locust, the most widely distributed species of the insect, and examined several compounds produced by the bug.
It found that one in particular—4-vinylanisole, or 4VA—appeared to attract locusts when emitted, and that the more locusts flocked together, the more 4VA they emitted.
Journal Reference:
Xiaojiao Guo, Qiaoqiao Yu, Dafeng Chen, et al. 4-Vinylanisole is an aggregation pheromone in locusts [$], Nature (DOI: 10.1038/s41586-020-2610-4)
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(Score: 3, Interesting) by Immerman on Thursday August 13 2020, @11:53PM (7 children)
Seems to me the obvious application of this research is to weaponize locusts by dosing a few with the pheromone and thus starting the chain reaction. Though baited traps might also be an option, so long as they were big enough and cleared out often enough - not gong to do much good if you lure enough non-swarming locusts to the trap that the swarm abandons the trapped individuals. Break out the grill and locust-burgers!
You're not going to genetically engineer it away - not without introducing a gene-drive with the horrible risks that represents. Without that all you'll do is create a sub-population that doesn't swarm - and since swarming is a survival strategy, that sub-population probably won't last long.
If you want to stop locusts from swarming, I would think the interesting research would be in finding the trigger that causes them to *stop* swarming, not the one that starts it.
In fact, I seem to recall someone 5-10 years ago that had worked out both chemical triggers, so that he could turn the swarming behavior on or off at will. I wonder what happened to them?
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Thursday August 13 2020, @11:58PM
He sold his patent to Monsanto, which in turn was bought up by Bayer.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 14 2020, @12:53AM (3 children)
How do you turn off the swarming behavior of cockroaches swarming around the orange cockroach in the white house ?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 14 2020, @01:04AM (1 child)
Cockroach sex pheremone?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 14 2020, @01:21AM
Nahhh, you gotta beat their little meaties.
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Friday August 14 2020, @01:31AM
Dammit Jim, I'm an entomologist, not a miracle worker.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 14 2020, @03:58PM
Already been done. It's known to us as the Progressive Movement. The swarming trigger is the sequence virtue signaling and imagined victim creation leading to totalitarian policies. The only difference between locusts and Progressives is the delay between the trigger and the swarm. It takes some time for the policies to make a site unlivable enough for the Progressives to move then infest another region.
(Score: 2) by Bot on Saturday August 15 2020, @10:32AM
Yep, collect a bunch of locusts, add a bit of pheromone into some fields in enemy territory, PROFIT!!!
I guess the drill is keeping on with ecological economical and canonical petty wars/terrorism until they convince the survivors that a new world order is the solution. It is. The literal Endlösung.
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