UDHAGAMANDALAM: A team of
entomologists
from the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU) on Friday ruled out the presence of
locusts
in the hill town.
A
big grasshopper
found in Kandal area two days ago had created panic in the wake of reports of locusts invading the northern States. “I found the insect, which resembled a locust, and informed the collector immediately,” said Abuthahir, a resident of Kandal.
The district administration ordered the
horticulture department
to conduct an examination of the insect and the area where it was found.
“It is a local grasshopper species found in forests and coffee estates,” joint director of
horticulture
department Shiva Subramaniam Samraj said.
A three-member team from TNAU conducted a survey in the Kandal area on Friday. “There was no sign of any kind of grasshoppers,” team leader S V Krishnamurthi told TOI. “The insect found two days ago was not a locust. Its scientific name is Cyrtacanthacris tatarica. People need not panic.”
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