Omen...Locust.

Has anyone else noticed the appearance of locust (grasshoppers) all over lately?

Omens have long been a part of myth and religion, from fearful predictions in ancient times to superstitions like black cats in your path. Animals are looked at heavily in the history of omens; the interpretation depends on the type of animal and what it’s doing at the time. Perhaps the worst omen of all, however, is the appearance of locusts.

A locust swarm often signified death for an entire region, crops demolished, livestock dead—a catastrophe.

Locust is the name given to the swarming phase of short-horned grasshoppers of the family Acrididae. The origins and apparent extinction of certain species of locust—some of which reach 6 inches in length—are unclear.

There are species that can breed rapidly under suitable conditions and subsequently become gregarious and migratory. They form bands as nymphs and swarms as adults — both of which can travel great distances, hence rapidly stripping fields and greatly damaging crops.
Examples of Locust species:

Migratory locust (Locusta migratoria)
Red locust (Nomadracis septemfasciata)
Australian plague locust (Chortoicetes terminifera)
American desert locust (Schistocerca Americana)
Desert locust (Schistocerca gregaria), probably the most important in terms of its very wide distribution (North Africa, Middle East, and Indian subcontinent) and its ability to migrate very widely.
Rocky Mountain locust (Melanoplus spretus) in North America had some of the largest recorded swarms, but mysteriously died out in the late 19th century.

According to the Bible, a swarm of locusts comprised the eighth plague in the story of the plagues of Egypt. In the Book of Revelation locusts with scorpion tails and human faces are to torment unbelievers for five months when the fifth trumpet sounds. The book of Joen, Old Testament, is written in the context of a recent locust plague. Interestingly, the locusts are described in four different ways - "swarming locusts, cutting locusts, hopping locusts and destroying locusts." Although these were identified by the old Version as four different creatures, modern translations correctly identify them as four kinds of locusts. This fits with the many molts (called instars) through which locusts go. For example, the "hopper" probably denotes the nymph stage (the first instar), the wings are not developed and the nymph hops about.

The book of Exodus mentions swarms of gnats attacking people and their animals followed by a swarm of locusts that ate what was left and blanketed the country in darkness for three days…

In Plato's Phaedrus, Socrates says that locusts were once human. When the Muses first brought song into the world, the beauty so captivated some people that they forgot to eat and drink until they died. The Muses turned those unfortunate souls into locusts— singing their entire lives.

Locusts differ from grasshoppers in that they can swarm. Normally locusts are solitary insects, but under the right circumstances of rain, combined with population density, and consequent shrinking of food resources, they develop swarming behavior. Locusts lay 'egg pods' which each contain about 100 eggs. Upon hatching, in two to three weeks from the time the egg pod was laid, the flightless locusts can form hopper swarms with a density as great as 5,000 per square meter. As they reach adulthood, they develop wings, and under the right conditions, begin to swarm and can cover vast distances. These swarms can be many square kilometers in size, and the insects are able to completely devastate entire fields in only a matter of minutes. This swarming behavior is a survival strategy, since it is typically the case that locusts breed in drier regions, and swarming over vast distances ensures the survival of the species (which is dependent on rainfall, which might be erratic in these drier regions).

Luckily…it typically takes good rains, and at least four generations for the locusts to reach swarming density----we live in phoenix. If rains start to pour here…that should be sign enough alone that something isn’t right.

...peace be...i am that locus curus g.