Touching legs turns shy locusts gregarious
By Susan Milius
Researchers wielding artists’ paintbrushes have tickled some insects and come up with a new insight into how a plague of locusts gets started.
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Left to itself, the desert locust of biblical fame stays camouflage green and shuns company, explains Stephen Simpson of the University of Oxford in England. However, when their population spikes because of such factors as abundant food, shy Schistocerca gregaria locusts become yellow-and-black partygoers.