Locusts and Grasshoppers
Locusts and Grasshoppers
复制标题
蝗虫和蚱蜢
作者：
B. Uvarov
9 月 5 日，英国协会 D 部门（动物学）在伯明翰会议上举行了一次特别会议，专门讨论了蝗虫和蚱蜢问题。抗蝗研究中心的BP Uvarov博士介绍了这一主题，他指出，世界人口的稳定增长使得不仅需要种植更多的粮食，而且还需要保护农作物免受昆虫造成的损失。第二次世界大战之前，据估计，蝗虫和蚱蜢每年平均造成粮食作物损失约 1500 万磅；由于价格上涨，现在将这个数字翻倍并不夸张。尽管这是最古老的昆虫学问题，但它在很大程度上仍未得到解决。过去，其解决方案因蝗灾的周期性而受到阻碍，无法获得持续研究的支持。然而，自 1929 年以来，英国的反蝗虫研究一直是在连续性和广泛（尽管大部分是非正式的）国际合作的基础上组织起来的。蝗虫问题有很多方面，其主要影响是： 造成昆虫数量大幅波动的原因；蝗虫从相对无害的单独阶段转变为集群阶段；大范围的迁徙；现代杀虫剂和机械的发展使灭蝗成为相对简单的技术操作；困难在于组织，因为昆虫的流动性，当地的努力收效甚微。第二次世界大战期间，非洲、中东地区的反蝗灾取得了成功，是多国统筹协调的结果；这种努力可以重复进行，但只能取得暂时的成功。就北美的蝗虫而言，化学防治非常成功。但每年都必须重复操作，成本不断增加。所有这些成功都是暂时的，但问题的持久解决也是可能的。过去二十年的调查表明，蝗灾发生在一些相对有限的地区，并逐渐蔓延到整个大陆。两种非洲蝗虫的例子已经确定了这种“爆发区域”，它们现在受到小型国际组织的持续观察和控制。至少有两次瘟疫的初始阶段已被及时发现并在其发展之前被抑制。现在希望对爆发地区有利于最初蜂群聚集的条件进行仔细研究，可以通过改变不利于蜂群聚集的条件来提供预防鼠疫的方法。这可能需要长期的研究和实验，但彻底预防瘟疫的前景足以证明这项工作的合理性。因此，虽然蝗虫问题还不能被认为已经解决，但众所周知它是可以解决的，而且解决它的方法现在相当明确。最终的成功在很大程度上取决于研究和控制方面的有效国际组织，而最有希望的国际合作形式是由区域组织提供，每个组织都关注一个单一的领域
Aspecial session, held on September 5, of Section D (Zoology) of the British Association at the Birmingham meeting was devoted to a symposium on the locust and grasshopper problem. The subject was introduced by Dr. BP Uvarov, of the Anti-Locust Research Centre, who pointed out that the steady increase in world population makes it essential not only to grow more food, but also to protect crops' from losses caused by insects. Before the Second World War, locusts and grasshoppers were estimated to cause an average annual loss of food crops to the value of some 15 million pounds; it would not be an exaggeration to double that figure now, owing to the rise in prices. Although this is the oldest entomological problem, it is still largely unsolved. In the past, its solution was hampered by the periodicity of locust plagues, which made it impossible to obtain support for continuous research. Since 1929, however, British anti-locust research has been organised on the basis of continuity, and of wide, if largely informal, international collaboration. The locust problem has many aspects, its main ramifications being: causes of vast fluctuations in numbers of the insects; transformation of locust phases from a relatively harmless solitary phase to the swarming one; migrations over wide areas; effects of agricultural practices, etc. Modern developments in insecticides and machinery make locust killing a relatively simple technical operation; the difficulty is in the organisation, as local efforts are of little use owing to the mobility of the insects. Successful antilocust campaigns were conducted during the Second World War in Africa and the Middle East, and their success was due to overall planning and co-ordination of the efforts of many countries; such efforts can be repeated, but they can achieve only temporary successes. In the case of grasshoppers in North America, chemical control is highly successful; but operations have to be repeated every year, at an ever-increasing cost.All such successes are temporary, but a lasting solution of the problem is also possible. Investigations of the past twenty years have shown that locust plagues arise in some relatively restricted areas from which swarms gradually spread over whole continents. Such'outbreak areas' have been defined in the case of two African locusts, and they are now kept under continuous observation and control by small international organisations. The initial stages of at least two plagues have been noticed in time and suppressed before they could develop. It is now hoped that a careful study of the conditions which favour the initial swarming in the outbreak areas may provide the means of preventing plagues by altering the conditions in a sense unfavourable to swarming. This may require long study and experiment, but the prospect of complete prevention of plagues is sufficiently attractive to justify the work. Thus, while the locust problem cannot yet be considered as solved, it is known to be soluble, and the way towards its solution is now fairly clear. Final success depends largely on the effective international organisation of both research and control, and the most promising form of international co-operation is offered by regional organisations, each concerned with a single