Imperial Entomology: Locusts

Description

In the spring of 2020, East Africa was affected by two plagues, one modern, one ancient. The modern was COVID-19, the ancient was locusts. Swarms of the Desert Locust (were combatted largely by national agencies, aided by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). In the first half of the twentieth century, locust plagues were managed by imperial governments, advised by their scientific institutions. The most important was the Imperial Bureau of Entomology (IBE) in London. A combination of geography, politics, and scientific authority saw the creation of an ‘imperial entomology’ of locust knowledge and power. British colonies were those most threatened by the plagues, because of the size the formal and informal Empire, but the threats were also an opportunity for the new policy of science-led colonial development. Entomological authority came primarily from Boris Uvarov, a Russian émigré, who worked at the IBE. His phase theory of swarming had revealed that locusts can exist in two forms – solitary and gregarious, and that controlling numbers in the solitary phase could prevent the development of swarms.