What Is a Group of Locusts Called?
A quiet, solitary grasshopper that can transform into an unstoppable swarm.
A group of locusts is called a plague, with cloud and swarm also used depending on size and behavior. Locusts are ordinary grasshoppers that can physically transform when crowded together, triggering one of the most dramatic behavioral shifts in the insect world.
What Is a Group of Locusts Called?
Plague is the most historically loaded and widely used term, reflecting the devastating crop damage locust swarms have caused throughout recorded history. Cloud and swarm describe the same phenomenon in more visual, physical terms, evoking the sheer mass of insects blotting out the sky.
Where Did the Name Come From?
“Plague” carries obvious biblical weight, referencing the locust plague described in the Book of Exodus, and the word has stuck in common usage ever since to describe any large, destructive swarm. Unlike many collective nouns invented for humor or symbolism, this one reflects a genuinely accurate, historically documented threat to agriculture across multiple continents.
Locust Facts
- A Jekyll-and-Hyde insect: Locusts are ordinary, solitary grasshoppers most of the time. Under crowded conditions, they undergo a genuine physical and behavioral transformation called phase polyphenism, changing color, body shape, and behavior to become the gregarious, swarming insect associated with plagues.
- Triggered by touch: The transformation is triggered by repeated physical contact between individuals, especially on the hind legs, which causes a surge of serotonin and pushes the insect into its swarming “gregarious phase.”
- Enormous swarms: A single locust swarm can contain billions of individual insects and travel vast distances carried by wind currents, sometimes crossing seas.
- Voracious eaters: A large swarm can consume as much food in a single day as tens of thousands of people, devastating crops across entire regions.
- An ancient problem: Locust plagues have been documented for thousands of years, referenced in ancient Egyptian records and religious texts long before anyone understood the biology behind them.
Example Sentences
- A plague of locusts descended on the fields, stripping them bare within hours.
- Farmers watched anxiously as a dark cloud of locusts approached from the horizon.
Other Names for a Group of Locusts
Plague is the term most tied to locusts historically and culturally, thanks to its long association with agricultural devastation. Cloud and swarm are more visually descriptive, general terms that emphasize the physical scale of the group rather than its impact.
🧠 Test Your Locust Knowledge
Three quick questions. See what stuck.
1. What’s the most historically loaded term for a group of locusts?
2. What triggers a locust’s transformation into swarm behavior?
3. What are locusts most of the time, outside of a swarm?
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a group of locusts called?
Most often a plague, with cloud and swarm also used.
Are locusts a different species from grasshoppers?
No, locusts are grasshoppers that can undergo a physical and behavioral transformation into a swarming phase under crowded conditions.
What causes locusts to swarm?
Repeated physical contact, especially on the hind legs, triggers a serotonin surge that pushes them into gregarious, swarming behavior.
How big can a locust swarm get?
Swarms can contain billions of insects and travel vast distances on wind currents.
Why is a group of locusts called a plague?
The term references the biblical locust plague and reflects the very real, historically documented agricultural devastation locust swarms have caused.
An Insect With Two Faces
A plague of locusts is one of the few collective nouns backed by real, documented biology rather than medieval whimsy, a quiet grasshopper transformed by crowding into one of nature’s most destructive forces.