SCP-3916
Hungry Locusts
Object Class: Esoteric
Special Containment Procedures
One small swarm of SCP-3916 is contained in a standard biological containment cell at Site-121. It is to be fed daily with 500kg of fresh plant matter. Excess instances (past roughly 1500) are to be terminated as necessary. Any instances that escape containment are to be terminated by conventional means, such as fire or insecticide. Any personnel wishing to conduct experiments on SCP-3916 should contact its current head researcher.
Wild instances of SCP-3916 should be eradicated immediately and thoroughly, unless otherwise notified. The Foundation is currently cooperating with the government of the United States of America (through the cover of LARPA, see Addendum) to capture, kill, or otherwise contain all wild SCP-3916 instances, as they have been recognized to pose a significant threat to humanity at large. MTF δ-17 "Metarhizium" is to be notified of any outstanding reports of SCP-3916.
Description
SCP-3916 is a species of insect that physically resembles Chortoicetes terminifera (Australian Plague Locust). However, SCP-3916 has two anomalous traits of particular note.
First, SCP-3916 eats at an alarming rate. A single instance is able to consume roughly 100g of matter per second. SCP-3916 has only been found to eat fresh plant matter.
Second, SCP-3916 reproduce unusually quickly, and do so asexually. An instance of SCP-3916 will grow visually larger as it consumes more food, and after a certain size threshold, split into two instances of SCP-3916. Both new instances will be fully-formed adults. Each "cloning" takes a significant amount of consumption, currently estimated at 500g of food. However, due to its eating speed, SCP-3916 swarms grow very quickly.
History: The Foundation was first made aware of the existence of SCP-3916 when a small swarm of them escaped the captivity of GoI-466 ("Wilson's Wildlife Services") in a transportation accident in Maupin, Oregon, along US Route 26. GoI-466 contacted the Foundation for assistance in containment, and the majority of the SCP-3916 instances were captured or eliminated. GoI-466 informed the Foundation of the nature of SCP-3916, and the few instances that remained uncontained were deemed to pose a significant threat. The uncontained instances of SCP-3916 spread rapidly across Oregon and into California, prompting the United States of America's government to take action, and leading to the formation of LARPA.
Addendum - LARPA Due to the nature of SCP-3916, the Foundation determined that it would be overly difficult to eliminate wild instances without alerting the general public. Thus, the Foundation contacted the USA government and negotiated the formation of LARPA (Locust Active Removal and Prevention Agency), an official government organization funded and staffed entirely by the Foundation. LARPA serves as a front through which the Foundation can openly take action against wild SCP-3916. Site-121, the current containment site of SCP-3916, has been designated as LARPA headquarters.