210 DIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS. 



for my own part be of the mind of the red-breasts, and eat only the naked 

 ones.^ But you will see that there is some encouragenient from precedent 

 to make a meal of the caterpillars which infest our cabbages and cauli- 

 flowers. Amongst the delicacies of a Boshies-man's table, Sparrman 

 reckons those caterpillars from which butterflies proceed.^ The Chinese, 

 who waste nothing, after they have unwound the silk from the cocoons of 

 the silkworm, send the chrysalis to table : they also eat the larva of a 

 hawkmoth (^Sphinx^), some of which tribe, Dr. Darwin tells us, are, in 

 his opinion, very delicious^ : and, lastly, the natives of New Holland eat 

 the caterpillars of a species of moth of a singular new genus, to which 

 my friend, Alexander MacLeay, Esq. has assigned characters, and, from 

 the circumstance of its larva coming out only in the night to feed, has 

 called it Nycterohius. A species of butterfly also {Euplaa hamata, Mac- 

 Leay), as we learn from Mr. Bennett, congregates on the insulated granitic 

 rocks in a particular disirict, which he visited in the months of November, 

 December, and January, in such countless myriads (with what object is 

 unknown), that the native blacks, who call them Bugong, assemble from 

 far and near to collect them, and, after removing the wings and down by 

 stirring them on the ground previously heated by a large fire, and winnow- 

 ing them, eat the bodies, or store them up for use by pounding and smoking 

 them. The bodies of these butterflies abound in an oil with the taste of 

 nuts; and, when first eaten, produce violent vomitings, and other debilita- 

 ting effects : but these go off after a few days, and the natives then thrive 

 and fatten exceedingly on this diet, for which they have to contend with a 

 black crow, which is also attracted by the Bugongs in great numbers, and 

 which they despatch with their clubs, and use as food.^ 



The next order, the Neuroptera, contains the white ant tribe {Termes), 

 which, in return for the mischief it does at certain times, affords an abun- 

 dant supply of food to some of the African nations. The Hottentots eat 

 them boiled, and raw, and soon get into good condition upon this food.® 

 Konig, quoted by Smeathman, says that in some parts of the East Indies 

 the natives make two holes in the nests of the white ants, one to the 

 windward and the other to the leeward, placing at the latter opening a pot 

 rubbed with an aromatic herb, to receive the insects driven out of their 

 nest by a fire of stinking materials made at the former.' Thus they catch 

 great quantities, of which they make with flour a variety of pastry, that 

 they can afford to sell cheap to the poorer people. Mr. Smeathman says 

 he has not found the Africans so ingenious in procuring or dressing them. 

 They are content with a very small part of those that fall into the waters 

 at the time of swarming, which they skim off with calabashes, bring large 

 kettles full of them to their habitations, and parch them in iron pots over 

 a gentle fire, stirring them about as is done in roasting coffee. In that 

 state, without sauce or other addition, they serve them up as delicious 

 food, and eat them by bandfuls as we do comfits. He has eaten them 



J Ray's Letters, 135. 2 Sparrman, i. 201. 



3 Sir G. Staunton's F«y. iii. 246. ■* Phytol. 364. 



* Bennett's Wanderings, ubi suprd,, i. 265 — 270. ^ Sparrman, i. 363. 



"> Captain Green relates that, in the ceded districts in India, they place the branches of 

 trees over the nests, and then by means of smoke drive out the insects ; which, attempting 

 to fly, their wings are broken off by the mere touch of the branches. 



