lo·cust /ˈlokəst/
 蝗蟲,蚱蜢,蟬


 Lo·cust n.
 1. Zool. Any one of numerous species of long-winged, migratory, orthopterous insects, of the family Acrididæ, allied to the grasshoppers; esp., (Edipoda migratoria, syn. Pachytylus migratoria, and Acridium perigrinum, of Southern Europe, Asia, and Africa. In the United States the related species with similar habits are usually called grasshoppers. See Grasshopper.
 Note: ☞ These insects are at times so numerous in Africa and the south of Asia as to devour every green thing; and when they migrate, they fly in an immense cloud. In the United States the harvest flies are improperly called locusts. See Cicada.
 Locust beetle Zool., a longicorn beetle (Cyllene robiniæ), which, in the larval state, bores holes in the wood of the locust tree.  Its color is brownish black, barred with yellow. Called also locust borer.
 Locust bird Zool. the rose-colored starling or pastor of India. See Pastor.
 Locust hunter Zool., an African bird; the beefeater.
 2.  Bot. The locust tree. See Locust Tree (definition, note, and phrases).
 Locust bean Bot., a commercial name for the sweet pod of the carob tree.

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 locust
      n 1: migratory grasshoppers of warm regions having short antennae
      2: hardwood from any of various locust trees
      3: any of various hard-wooded trees of the family Leguminosae
         [syn: locust tree]


 Locust
    There are ten Hebrew words used in Scripture to signify locust.
    In the New Testament locusts are mentioned as forming part of
    the food of John the Baptist (Matt. 3:4; Mark 1:6). By the
    Mosaic law they were reckoned "clean," so that he could lawfully
    eat them. The name also occurs in Rev. 9:3, 7, in allusion to
    this Oriental devastating insect.

      Locusts belong to the class of Orthoptera, i.e.,
    straight-winged. They are of many species. The ordinary Syrian
    locust resembles the grasshopper, but is larger and more
    destructive. "The legs and thighs of these insects are so
    powerful that they can leap to a height of two hundred times the
    length of their bodies. When so raised they spread their wings
    and fly so close together as to appear like one compact moving
    mass." Locusts are prepared as food in various ways. Sometimes
    they are pounded, and then mixed with flour and water, and baked
    into cakes; "sometimes boiled, roasted, or stewed in butter, and
    then eaten." They were eaten in a preserved state by the ancient
    Assyrians.

      The devastations they make in Eastern lands are often very
    appalling. The invasions of locusts are the heaviest calamites
    that can befall a country. "Their numbers exceed computation:
    the hebrews called them 'the countless,' and the Arabs knew them
    as 'the darkeners of the sun.' Unable to guide their own flight,
    though capable of crossing large spaces, they are at the mercy
    of the wind, which bears them as blind instruments of Providence
    to the doomed region given over to them for the time.
    Innumerable as the drops of water or the sands of the seashore,
    their flight obscures the sun and casts a thick shadow on the
    earth (Ex. 10:15; Judg. 6:5; 7:12; Jer. 46:23; Joel 2:10). It
    seems indeed as if a great aerial mountain, many miles in
    breadth, were advancing with a slow, unresting progress. Woe to
    the countries beneath them if the wind fall and let them alight!
    They descend unnumbered as flakes of snow and hide the ground.
    It may be 'like the garden of Eden before them, but behind them
    is a desolate wilderness. At their approach the people are in
    anguish; all faces lose their colour' (Joel 2:6). No walls can
    stop them; no ditches arrest them; fires kindled in their path
    are forthwith extinguished by the myriads of their dead, and the
    countless armies march on (Joel 2:8, 9). If a door or a window
    be open, they enter and destroy everything of wood in the house.
    Every terrace, court, and inner chamber is filled with them in a
    moment. Such an awful visitation swept over Egypt (Ex. 10:1-19),
    consuming before it every green thing, and stripping the trees,
    till the land was bared of all signs of vegetation. A strong
    north-west wind from the Mediterranean swept the locusts into
    the Red Sea.", Geikie's Hours, etc., ii., 149.