This year has seen a huge number, amounting to hundreds of billions of locusts swarming through parts of East Africa and South Asia in the worst infestation for a quarter of a century, threatening crops and livelihoods. The insects, which eat their own body weight in food every day, are breeding so fast numbers could increase five hundred times by June. Large swarms have been noted in the Horn of Africa, through the Middle East including Saudi Arabia as well as Pakistan and India. I photographed the below locust at Judah between Dhahran and Riyadh but large swarms have been noted in the Eastern Province during the last month with several small swarms still being seen daily including where I live in Dhahran.
