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The effects of temperature and moisture during the egg stage on hatchling phase characteristics of Locusta migratoria were investigated. The incubation temperature of eggs laid by crowd-reared females affected embryonic development and some phase characteristics of the hatchlings. Incubation at 20 degrees C caused eggs to develop more slowly and to produce more black hatchlings than those incubated at 30 degrees C. A correlation was found between body size and cuticular melanism of hatchlings at these temperatures; however, the correlation was lower at the lower temperature. When large eggs expected to produce large and black hatchlings were exposed to dry conditions, they produced small, whitish hatchlings, typical of the solitary phase. However, unlike typical solitary individuals, these nymphs did not show extra moulting and had only 5 stadia before reaching the adult stage. These results suggested that deprivation of water from eggs may produce progeny looking like solitarious forms, but developmental traits such as numbers of nymphal stadia were unaffected. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.