Article

Locusts

From Munshipedia, the MBRAS digital historical encyclopedia

Locusts

The archival record on locusts in the Society’s literature is confined to a single lexical entry: the word tichu, recorded by J. C. Moulton as the Tabun and Murut term for “grasshopper” during his 1911 expedition to Mount Batu Lawi in Sarawak [1, p. 101]. No further entomological, ecological, or economic discussion of locusts appears in the available records, and the following article is limited to what that single attestation permits.

Scope and Historical Definition

The only documented reference to locusts in the Society’s published literature is a vocabulary entry compiled by Moulton during his 1911 expedition up the Limbang and Madihit river systems in the highlands of Sarawak, Borneo [1, pp. 100–104]. The entry records the word tichu as the shared term for “grasshopper” among both the Tabun and Murut peoples, the two groups with whom Moulton’s party had the most sustained contact during the overland portion of the journey [1, p. 101]. The entry is presented without further morphological description, habitat note, or behavioural observation; it stands as a single line in an alphabetical list of approximately two hundred words gathered from the native languages encountered on the route [1, pp. 100–104].

The distinction between “grasshopper” and “locust” is not addressed in the record. In entomological usage, the term “locust” typically refers to the gregarious, migratory phase of certain grasshopper species (family Acrididae), whereas “grasshopper” in common usage may encompass both solitary and gregarious forms. Moulton’s glossary does not specify which phase or which taxonomic group the indigenous term tichu denotes, nor does it indicate whether the word carries any connotation of swarming behaviour, agricultural damage, or seasonal abundance. The entry is therefore best understood as a general term for the order Orthoptera as perceived by the local populations, rather than a precise taxonomic or ecological statement [1, p. 101].

Linguistic and Ethnographic Context

The vocabulary from which the tichu entry is drawn was compiled by Moulton as Appendix IX to his expedition narrative, and is subtitled “Some words in use among the natives met on the journey to Batu Lawi” [1, p. 100]. The list is organised alphabetically by English gloss, with each entry annotated by the language or languages in which the term was recorded: T for Tabun, M for Murut, and K for Kalabit [1, p. 100]. The fact that tichu is marked with both T and M indicates that the word is shared across the two closely related groups, which Moulton notes “speak both these languages easily, though the Tabun dialect itself is distinct” [1, p. 9]. The Kalabit, a third group encountered further up the Madihit, are not recorded as using this particular term, though the absence of a K annotation may reflect the limited duration of contact with Kalabit speakers rather than a genuine lexical gap [1, pp. 100–104].

The vocabulary as a whole is a product of the expedition’s practical needs: Moulton required a working lexicon to communicate with his native carriers, guides, and hosts across the linguistic boundaries of the Limbang–Madihit region [1, pp. 100–104]. The entries cover a broad range of everyday vocabulary—body parts, verbs of motion, natural features, domestic objects, and abstract concepts—rather than a specialised scientific terminology [1, pp. 100–104]. In this context, the tichu entry is one of many observations of the natural world recorded incidentally: the list also includes terms for “cicada” (tawar idang, T), “fly” (t’mulud, T. M), “mosquito” (ritāk, M; namok, K), “spider” (k’lawa, M. K), and “porcupine” (t’rotong, M. K) [1, pp. 100–103]. These entries collectively suggest that the expedition’s linguistic documentation was attentive to the fauna of the region, but the tichu entry, like the others, was not accompanied by a specimen, a habitat description, or a note on abundance or behaviour.

Ecological and Economic Significance

The records provide no information on the ecological role, population dynamics, or economic impact of locusts or grasshoppers in the Limbang–Madihit highlands or elsewhere in Sarawak. Moulton’s narrative, which spans forty days of travel through dense primary forest at altitudes ranging from sea level to 5,660 feet, makes no mention of grasshopper swarms, agricultural damage, or indigenous practices of collection or control [1, pp. 1–57]. The region traversed was, by Moulton’s own account, sparsely populated and largely unvisited by Europeans; between Penribut’s house on the Madihit and the base of Batu Lawi, the party was away for thirteen days without encountering any native habitation [1, p. 56]. The agricultural activity observed was limited to small-scale paddy cultivation in the lower river valleys and the collection of gutta (natural rubber) by itinerant Dayak workers in the virgin jungle [1, pp. 11]. No locust-related pestilence or abundance is recorded in connection with these activities.

It should be noted that the expedition’s primary natural history output was directed towards entomology, ornithology, and botany, and that the collectors’ specimens were described in separate appendices to the narrative [1, pp. 56–57]. The entomological collections, while “regrettably small” in absolute numbers, were “surprisingly rich in new and rare species,” indicating the region’s biological significance [1, p. 56]. However, no orthopteran specimens are identified or discussed in the portions of the record available here, and the tichu entry remains the sole attestation of grasshoppers or locusts in the published account.

Research and Documentation

The documentation of locusts in the Society’s literature is, on the evidence available, a single lexical entry of minimal scientific elaboration. The entry’s value lies not in its entomological content but in its ethnolinguistic context: it records a shared term between two closely related highland groups of Sarawak, attested in a field setting of direct observation rather than second-hand report [1, p. 101]. The broader expedition narrative, while rich in descriptions of the region’s fauna—butterflies, birds, mammals, and reptiles—does not extend to a systematic treatment of orthopterans, and no subsequent article in the available records addresses the subject further.

The absence of dedicated locust research in the Society’s published output during this period is consistent with the general pattern of colonial-era natural history in Borneo, in which attention was concentrated on taxa of immediate commercial or aesthetic interest—butterflies, birds, and mammals—rather than on the ecological and agricultural implications of insect populations. The tichu entry thus stands as a fragmentary but genuine record of indigenous knowledge of the region’s fauna, preserved within a larger work of geographical and ethnographic documentation. Any further investigation of locusts in the highlands of Sarawak would require consultation of the Sarawak Museum’s entomological collections and unpublished field notes, which fall outside the scope of the Society’s published literature as represented in the records examined here.

MBRAS Sources

References

  1. A. Griffini (1912). A new Gryllacrid JSBRAS 63: 89–91.