A very good book was written several years ago about the Rocky Mountain locust, which went spontaneously went extinct between about 1870 and 1914.
At one point they were the most common species in North and South America and ate up to 60% of the food produced each year.
The government was unable to control the vermin and said that all people could do was to pray that they would go away.
The females mutated and were unable to breed with the males. Over the next 35 years, the species spontaneously went extinct.
Really, a species going spontaneously extinct because the females mutated and could not breed with the males is about as close you’ll ever get to a miracle of Biblical proportions. And yet, the author completely missed that fact!
Did feminism take hold of this species of locust? When I lived in Japan, rice locust were gathered, marinated in a soy oil and sold in trays in the supermarket. It was a nice sidedish rich in protein. They didn't taste too bad either once you got over the idea of eating insects.
November was the peak season for gathering. The Japanese had a way of baiting and setting traps so they more or less gathered themselves.
That’s a pretty incredible story!
Thanks for sharing that and the link.