DIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS. 207 



which is the size of the thumb, has been long in request in both the 

 Indies. jElian speaks of an Indian king, who, for a dessert, instead of 

 fruit set before his Grecian guests a roasted worm taken from a plant, 

 probably the larva of this insect, which he says the Indians esteem very 

 delicious — a character that was confirmed by some of the Greeks who 

 tasted it.^ Madam Merian has figured one of these larvae, and says that 

 the natives of Surinam roast and eat them as something exquisite.^ A 

 friend of mine, who has resided a good deal in the West Indies, where 

 the palm-grub is called Grugru, informs me that the late Sir John La 

 Forey, who was somewhat of an epicure, was extremely fond of it when 

 properly cooked. 



The larvae also of the larger species of the Capricorn tribe (^Cerambyx 

 L. ; Longicornes Latr.) are accounted very great delicacies in many 

 countries ; and the Cossusof Pliny, which he tells us the Roman epicures 

 fattened with flour^, most probably belonged to this tribe. Linne indeed, 

 following the opinion of Ray^, supposes the caterpillar of the great goat- 

 moth, the anatomy of which has been so wonderfully traced by the eye 

 and pencil of the incomparable Lyonet, to l)e the Cossus. But there 

 seems a strong reason against this opinion ; for Linne's Cossus lives most 

 commonly in the willow, Pliny's in the oak ; and the former is a very 

 disagreeable, ugly, and fetid larva, not very likely to attract the Roman 

 epicures. Probably they were the larvae of Prionus coriarius, which I 

 have myself extracted from the oak, or of one of its congeners.^ The 

 grub of P. damicornis, which is of the thickness of a man's finger, is 

 eaten at Surinam, in America, and in the West Indies, both by whites and 

 blacks, who empty, wash, and roast them, and find them delicious.^ Mr. 

 Hall informs me, that in Jamaica this grub is called Macauco, and is in 

 request at the principal tables. A similar insect is dressed at Mauritius 

 under the name of Moutac, which the whites as well as negroes eat 

 greedily.^ The larva of P. cervicornis is, according to Linne, held in 

 equal estimation ; and that of Acanthocinus tribulus, when roasted, forms 

 an article of food in Africa.^ It is probable that all the species of this 

 genus might be safely eaten, as well as many other grubs of Coleoptera ; 

 and although I do not feel disposed to recommend with Reaumur^, that 

 the larvae of Oryctes nasicornis should be sought for " dans Us couches de 

 fumie:-" yet I think with Dr. Darwin^'', that those of the cockchafer which 

 feed upon the roots of grass, or the perfect insects themselves, which, if 

 we may judge from the eagerness with which cats, and turkeys and other 



' ^lian, Hist. 1. xiv. c. 13. ; quoted in Reautn. ii. 343. 



2 Ins. Sur. 48. 3 ffi^f^ j^^t. 1. xvii. c. 24. 



* Wisdom of God, 9th ed. 307. Ray first adopted the opinion here maintained, that the 

 Cossi were the larvee of some beetle ; but afterwards, from observing in the caterpillar of 

 Cossus lis'iiperda a power of retracting its prolegs within the body, he conjectured that the 

 hexapod larva from Jamaica (Prionus damicor7iis ?) , given him by Sir Hans Sloane, might 

 have the same faculty, and so be the caterpillar of a Bombyx. 



* Amoreux has collected the different opinions of entomologists on the subject of Pliny's 

 Cossus, which has been supposed to be the larva of CordyUa pnlmarnm by Geoffroy ; of 

 Lucaniis cirvus by Scopoli, and of Prionus damicornis by Drury. The first and last, being 

 neither natives of Italy, nor inhabiting the oak, are out of the question. The larvse of 

 Lucanus servus and Prionus coriarius, which are found in the oak as well as in other trees, 

 may each have been eaten under this name, as their difference would not be discernible 

 either to collectors or cooks. — Amoreux, 154. 



6 Merian, Ins. Sur. 24. ^ St. Pierre, Voij. 72. ^ Smeathman, 32. 



3 Reaum. ii. 344. '<> Pftytol. 364. 



