THE STUDY OF VARIOUS BODY PARAMETERS AND IMPACT OF CLIMATE CHANGE ON POTENTIAL SWARMING OF Schistocerca gregaria FORSKAL (ORTHOPTERA: ACRIDIDAE) IN PUNJAB, PAKISTAN

Environment is the fundamental factor for deciding the conveyance and plenitude of locust species globally. The various body’s parameters of males and females like distance between two eyes, length of head, pronotum, tegmina, wings, femur, tibia, total body length, total body length with tegmina and impact of climate on abrupt swarming of Schistocerca gregaria was examined during the present study. Locusts swarms landed on vast fields of cotton, wheat, maize, sugarcane and other standing crops in fertile parts of southern Punjab. It is estimated that million acres fertile land was badly affected by this sudden eruption, although earlier plagues persist for shorter time periods but recent plague was largest one started from March, 2019 up to December, 2019. The huge quantities of swarms were observed in the months of September and October and small swarms were recorded in March and April which coincides with environmental factors like temperature, humidity and rainfall. Control measures has been taken against Desert locust over 349440 hectors and aerial spray with Malathion 95% ULV on 300 hectors while ground operation was carried out on 92535 hectors. The present study was an important contribution on locust swarming and their action in southern Punjab.