Abstract

DIAZ BOLANOS, Ronald Eduardo; ALFARO MARTINEZ, Eric J.  and  LEITON GUTIERREZ, Leninger. La plaga de langostas Schistocerca sp. (Orthoptera: Acridae) y su relación con el Mega Niño de 1877-1878 en Costa Rica. Cuadernos de Investigación UNED [online]. 2019, vol.11, n.2, pp.54-64. ISSN 1659-4266.  http://dx.doi.org/10.22458/urj.v11i2.2200.

“The locust Schistocerca sp. (Orthoptera: Acridae) plague and its relationship with the Mega Niño of 1877-1878 in Costa Rica”. Introduction: locust plagues have been recorded for thousands of years and were feared by many societies. Objective: to assess if the locusts that affected Costa Rica in the 19th century were related with the Mega-Niño of 1877-1878. Methods: we checked files in the Costa Rican Congress, Governance, Municipalities and Police Force. Results: clouds of locusts were reported from Guanacaste in June 1876 and in the following months the reports spread to a large part of the country, with a lesser extent in Limón. The plague affected mainly the Central American Dry Corridor (CADC) while the Mega-Niño was developing. Conclusion: meteorological data support the hypothesis that conditions generated by the Mega-Niño favored the propagation of locusts that significant damaged agriculture. The pest was combated by the army and, by the church, with prayers, until it moved to Colombia.

Keywords : Costa Rica; history; climate; El Niño; environment; agriculture; locusts.

        · abstract in Spanish     · text in Spanish     · Spanish ( pdf )