Breeding of Locusts for Research and Instruction

Abstract

THE supply of living animals for both teaching and research purposes is a perennial problem for zoological laboratories. The new insecticides are partly responsible for the difficulty which has occurred in recent years in obtaining adequate supplies of cockroaches. For many purposes the locust can take the place of the cockroach, and it has the advantages of being larger, easy to rear in laboratory conditions and, for such a large animal, it has a very rapid life-cycle ; the whole life-cycle takes about seven weeks, and only about half that time is required from hatching to the emergence of the adults. Instructions for the breeding and rearing of locusts have now been prepared by the Anti-Locust Research Centre, and copies can be obtained from the Director of the Centre, British Museum (Natural History), London, S.W.7. The Centre is not prepared to sell locusts to anyone, but it will supply them free for certain research projects and, so far as possible, for starting stocks for teaching purposes ; adults for class dissection will not be sent.