I think we are both right. Wikipedia says the following:
Locusts are several species of short-horned
grasshoppers</wiki/Short-horned_grasshopper>of the family
Acrididae </wiki/Acrididae> that sometimes form very large groups (swarms);
these can be highly destructive and migrate in a more or less coordinated
way. Thus, these grasshoppers have solitary and gregarious (swarm) phases.
Locust swarms can cause massive damage to crops </wiki/Agriculture>.
Important locust species include *Schistocerca
gregaria</wiki/Schistocerca_gregaria>
* and *Locusta migratoria </wiki/Locusta_migratoria>* in Africa and the
Middle East, and *Schistocerca
piceifrons</w/index.php?title=Schistocerca_piceifrons&action=edit>
* in tropical Mexico and Central America (Mesoamerica </wiki/Mesoamerica>).
Other grasshoppers important as pests (which, unlike "true" locusts, do not
change color when they form swarms) include *Melanoplus
</wiki/Melanoplus>*species (like
*M. bivittatus*, *M. femurrubrum* and *M. differentialis*) and *Camnula
pellucida </w/index.php?title=Camnula_pellucida&action=edit>* in North
America; the lubber
grasshopper</w/index.php?title=Lubber_grasshopper&action=edit>
*Brachystola magna </w/index.php?title=Brachystola_magna&action=edit>*, and
*Sphenarium purpurascens</w/index.php?title=Sphenarium_purpurascens&action=edit>
* in Northern and Central Mexico; and species of
*Rhammatocerus</w/index.php?title=Rhammatocerus&action=edit>
* in South America.
and there is an impressive pic of a Bark Mimicking Grasshopper, Coryphistes
ruricola, see here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grasshopper
On 8/16/07, Joanna Boulter <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> Wouldn't those be locusts? Bigger, and notoriously hungry, an effect which
> is made worse because they move in huge skyfilling swarms. All these seem
> to
> be the same sort of tribe, though if we have any biologists on board who
> are
> able to correct me, I''d be most interested to know.
>
> joanna
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Anny Ballardini" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Thursday, August 16, 2007 2:10 PM
> Subject: Re: poem revised
>
>
> the much I like your version I can't but remember a movie with
> grasshoppers
> in Africa that ate down everything _a nightmare.
>
> On 8/16/07, Joanna Boulter <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> >
> > We have grasshoppers. They're the polite version.
> >
> > joanna
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Anny Ballardini" <[log in to unmask]>
> > To: <[log in to unmask]>
> > Sent: Thursday, August 16, 2007 1:12 PM
> > Subject: Re: poem revised
> >
> >
> > In Tuscany in the yellow summer fields, a "maracas-like rattle" as
> Martin
> > says, and plenty of them in poems as well. You can find them also here
> in
> > the north, but it has to be a very hot summer and then there are the
> > crickets too. Completely different sounds, songs, cries whatever that
> is.
> > I
> > am surprised you do not have them in England.
> >
> > On 8/16/07, Joanna Boulter <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> > >
> > > Am not sure whether it was cicadas or crickets I encountered in
> Malaysia
> > > many years ago, but it was certainly something very similar, and they
> > made
> > > a
> > > great deal of noise, especially at night. This could be rather
> > exotically
> > > pleasant; but when combined with dengue fever the effect is as though
> > > one's
> > > head is being assaulted by a road drill.
> > >
> > > Ah, thems wuz the days!
> > >
> > > joanna
> > >
> > > ----- Original Message -----
> > > From: "MJ Walker" <[log in to unmask]>
> > > To: <[log in to unmask]>
> > > Sent: Thursday, August 16, 2007 11:26 AM
> > > Subject: Re: poem revised
> > >
> > >
> > > LA CIGALE ayant chanté
> > > Tout l'Esté
> > > Se trouva fort dépourveuë
> > > Quand la Bize fut venuë -
> > > La Fontaine (but he got it from an Oriental tale)
> > > The cicada having sung/ all the summmer long/ finds itself without a
> > > crumb/ when the winds of autumn come.
> > > You could come to the South of France, although one doesn't actually
> see
> > > them very often - they make an awful noise which has been described as
> a
> > > maracas-like rattle. Their wings sort of cover their body like a roof,
> > > unlike grasshoppers & such.
> > > mj
> > >
> > > Roger Day wrote:
> > >
> > > >i don't know what cicadas sound like, I don't even know wht they look
> > > like.
> > > >
> > > >On 8/16/07, Patrick McManus <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> > > >
> > > >>Well I have trouble with the first line -surely we know what they
> > sound
> > > >>like
> > > >>-could it not be more informal shorter like say just(he says
> > > >>tentatively!!)
> > > >> cicadas trill
> > > >>(or what ever they do blast stridulate ??barrack? clamour??
> ballyhoo??
> > > >>Cacophony?? Stridulating (like poets at a reading!!
> > > >>Cheers P
> > > >>
> > > >>-----Original Message-----
> > > >>From: Poetryetc: poetry and poetics [mailto:[log in to unmask]
> ]
> > On
> > > >>Behalf Of andrew burke
> > > >>Sent: 16 August 2007 07:27
> > > >>To: [log in to unmask]
> > > >>Subject: poem revised
> > > >>
> > > >>After a number of drafts, and some suggestions from p'etcers,
> notably
> > > >>Max 'Cooee' Richards, I have revised my 'snap' poem, Changing the
> > > >>Sprinkler (including changing its title):
> > > >>
> > > >>
> > > >>
> > > >>Gibb River Evening
> > > >>
> > > >>
> > > >>In the shrill sound of cicadas
> > > >>I move the sprinkler
> > > >>pulling the hose over
> > > >>red rocky ground.
> > > >>
> > > >>Who drinks here
> > > >>beneath the evening sky
> > > >>with the lace silhouette
> > > >>of tall gums before
> > > >>the pink sky's edge?
> > > >>A straw-necked ibis
> > > >>wings away and quacks
> > > >>like a duck. Beneath
> > > >>ochre-red clay, amongst
> > > >>a complex syntax of roots,
> > > >>strongest of earth's creatures
> > > >>push and pull a way
> > > >>through thickest breath.
> > > >>Webbed eggs fill a dark cavity,
> > > >>a thick-bellied vein worms
> > > >>by a deep chamber.
> > > >>
> > > >>I turn my ear to
> > > >>a chortle, a choking sound
> > > >>below the cicadas -
> > > >>once, then nothing.
> > > >>
> > > >>
> > > >>
> > > >>--
> > > >>Andrew
> > > >>http://hispirits.blogspot.com/
> > > >>http://www.inblogs.net/hispirits
> > > >>http://www.flickr.com/photos/aburke/
> > > >>
> > > >>
> > > >>--
> > > >>No virus found in this incoming message.
> > > >>Checked by AVG Free Edition.
> > > >>Version: 7.5.476 / Virus Database: 269.11.19/953 - Release Date:
> > > >>14/08/2007
> > > >>17:19
> > > >>
> > > >>
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > >
> > > --
> > > Ne'er fash your thumb what gods decree
> > > To be the weird of you or me.
> > >
> > > Robert Fergusson
> > >
> >
>
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