Insect 



s as 



H 



uman 



Food. 



they will remove all the ehrysalids and burv them lower down. When the 

 butterflv is ready to emerge, which is in about six or seven davs, it is tenderh' 

 assisted to disengage itself from the sliell." 



In some parts of India this ant is esteemed as a curry ; and elsewhere it is 

 used as smelling salts ! The ants being crushed in the hands, the pungent odours 

 from their bodies are inhaled, and said to relieve a headache or cold at once. 



l^lioio by\ 



Head of Prioxus. 



•Ji. SI, -p. IJ... 



T!ii^ bcitlr, with many jointed antennje of rcmarkablf form, spends the earlier part of its !ifi' as a grub feeding in the wood of 

 trees. Jn some parts of the world these and other tine fat grubs serve as human food. 



Insects as Human Food. 



A \isitor from oik^ of tlu^ otiier planets would probably be surprised to learn 

 that though the civilized races of the earth indul^t^ in the eating of live oysters 

 and some other strangle foods, tliey abstain as a rule from the eating of Insects. 

 W'hv it should be so is rather dilficult to understand, when one considers the 

 things we do eat, and the fact that uncivili/ed and semi-ci\'ilized peoples retain 

 the })rimitive habit. Tlie abstention from Insects as food has been brought 

 about, no doubt, bv fashion, for that it is not merely culture and civilization that 

 produce an abhorrence of such food is ])r()\-ed b\- the fact that the cultured Greeks 

 and Romans found nothing disgusting in it. 'flu \- ate their cossus, their cicadas, 

 and their locusts ; and e\'en their i)oets juaised siuh tare. 



We ar(> all familiar with the stor\- of John the Baptist subsisting upon 

 locusts and wild hone\-, and though controversialists have sought to show that 



