LOCUST INVASIONS AND CLIMATIC FACTORS FROM THE MIDDLE-AGES TO 1800

Locust migrations are strictly connected with climatic factors and a historical reconstruction of their invasions in Europe may be useful in dealing with this plague. From records of medieval chroniclers and more recent sources till 1800, some 100 detailed descriptions of locust invasions have been collected and analyzed. Some of them include the meteorological conditions which were associated with the arrival of the swarm of locusts, their path and the presumed country of origin, as well as the local effects such as famine and epidemics, these latter being mostly due to the putrification of the dead locusts. Once in Italy, by comparing different chronicles it is also possible to reconstruct the local march of the bands of hoppers, their extension, the periods in which they more frequently appear, the impact on human settlements, and sometimes the climatic factors (drop of temperature) which caused the swarm to die. The frequent observation of bands with "locusts and crickets" refers to hoppers of different instars, some of them in mature stage and others immature or moulting, born in convenient climatic conditions. By comparing the various chronicles it was also possible to reconstruct the local trajectory of the swarms, their extension, the periods when they were most frequent, their impact on the towns and villages and sometimes the climatic factors (mostly sharp drops in the temperature) responsible for the death of the swarms in northern and central Italy. According to the documentation perused, central-northern Italy was infested via two routes: 1) in most cases the locusts travelled up the Danube basin, then channelled through the Dinaric Alps and the Carpathians thus reaching the Hungarian Plain, and then being transported by the eastern winds to Italy; 2) very occasionally there were local invasions from the north, when the locusts descended through the Brenner Pass after reaching the Danube basin, and then moving along the Inn valley down to the River Adige. Such invasions occurred at the same time as those from the east. There was no specific mention of any invasion coming directly from Africa (as testified by Pliny in Naturalis Historia VI, 195, VII, 28-29) nor from the Spanish peninsula. The centuries worst affected by this scourge were the XIV and XVI, and to a lesser degree, the XVII. More recently, man has been increasingly effective in combatting the locusts.