The development of a regional control strategy for the red locust, Nomadacris septemfasciata (Serville) began in the 1920s during a period when red, desert and African migratory locust swarms were widespread in Africa. The strategy involved controlling locusts in their permanent breeding areas to prevent swarms escaping over a much larger invasion area and damaging crops and pasture. Mapping and analysis of reports at the Imperial Institute of Entomology in London and field research in the Rukwa and Mweru wa Ntipa areas confirmed the location of two important red locust outbreak areas, and by the mid-1930s implementation of a preventative control strategy became a practical proposition. Regional control against red locusts formally came into being in 1941 under impetus from the Belgian and British Governments and collaborative surveying and control work continued despite the Second World War. Locust swarm activity intensified in the mid 1940s and other outbreak areas were found, raising the profile of the threat red locusts posed to food security. As a result, international collaboration in research, control and information dissemination was formalised in 1945 through the formation of the IRLCO-CSA.

Gregarious swarms of red locust, Nomadacris septemfasciata (Serville) capable of causing loss to agriculture originate from specific breeding areas in eastern and central Africa often referred to as outbreak areas. Typically these areas are poorly drained grassland plains that flood during the wet season and then dry out, creating sites for egg laying and stimulating growth of specific types of vegetation necessary for nymphal survival. During 1996, a significant upsurge of red locust occurred throughout central and western Tanzania. Populations also appeared in the Bahi Plains west of Dodoma, an area where significant infestations of red locust had not been recorded since the major plague of 1930–1944. Aerial spraying controlled 13,700 ha of nymphal bands and swarms. The 1996 upsurge could have been caused by a number of contributing factors: a prolonged drought leading to changes in vegetation; possible changes to flood water levels through diversion for irrigation; and either an undetected movement of red locust into the area from outside or localised breeding over several seasons. As a result of this outbreak the Bahi is likely to remain as a possible source of red locust swarms in the future and should be monitored closely.

This paper is a compilation of abstracts of 91 published articles on the red locust, Nomadacris septemfasciata (Serville) for the period 1940–1998. The summaries have been compiled from material held in the library of IRLCO-CSA at Ndola, Zambia and the University of Zambia, Lusaka. The articles deal with different aspects of the biology, ecology and control of the red locust with about equal coverage.