Insects as Human Food. 



17 



Photo by] 



Migratory Locust. 



[E. sup, F.L.S. 



In all parts of Africa and in Arabia the migraton.- locust has always been largely 

 utilized as food when the people have had the misfortvine to be' visited by its 

 devastatin? swanns. 



" have no unpleasant flavour." 

 Wallace says that, on the 

 Amazons, the saiiba ant^ is 

 captured in basketfuls for food, 

 at the time the winged males 

 and females swarm out of the 

 nests. He says, " It is rather 

 a singular sight to see for the 

 first time an Indian taking his 

 breakfast in the saiiba season. 

 He opens the basket, and as 

 the great winged ants crawl 

 slowlv out, he picks them 

 up carefullv and transfers 

 them with alternate handfuls of farina (Cassava meal) to his mouth." When, 

 later, he was studying the natural history of the Malay Archipelago, Wallace 

 found there also that the natives made use of the teeming Insect life for their 

 sustenance. He says, " P2very da\^ boys were to be seen walking along 

 the roads and by the hedges and ditches, catching dragon-flies with bird-lime. 

 They carry a slender stick with a few twigs at the end well anointed, so that 

 the least touch captures the insect, whose wings are pulled off before it is consigned 

 to a small basket. The dragon-flies are so abundant at the time of the rice- 

 flowering that thousands are caught in this way. The bodies are fried in oil with 

 onions and preserved shrimps, 

 or sometimes alone, and are 

 considered a great delicacy. 

 In Borneo, Celebes, and many 

 other islands, the larvae of bees 

 and wasps are eaten, either 

 alive or pulled out of the cells, 

 or fried like the dragon-flies. 

 In the INIoluccas the grubs of 

 the palm-beetles are regularly 

 brought to market in bamboos, 

 and sold for food ; and many 

 of the great horned beetles 

 are slightly roasted on the 

 embers and eaten w^henevcr 

 met with. The superabund- 

 ance of Insect life is therefore 

 turned to some account by 

 these islanders." 



But large Insects with 

 substantial bodies are not the 



Photo by] 



Grub of the Cockchafer. 



[H. .1/(1111, F.E.S, 



This pest, so destructive to our grasslatids, might be turned to account as food, 

 for which purpose it is used in some parts of the world. The cockchafer itself 

 is also eaten, and certainly looks more inviting than the grub. 



1 Atta ccphalotes. 



