oN ee 
ES = tee Si? | 
the Relative Edibility of Insects. : 4] 
hand and ran about with it. He then nibbled a leg 
off, looked again at the beetle, tasted it again, and 
finally put it in his mouth and ate it because another 
monkey, near by, wanted to see what he had got! 
I am quite sure he would not have eaten it had he 
been alone. 
(Note——It was remarked at the beginning of the 
paper how important it was to know the monkey, and 
that he should be undisturbed. An inexperienced 
observer might easily have concluded that the above 
beetle was far more edible than another observation 
(413) has shown it to be.) 
Obs. 460. Sp. 221.—Curculionid, Microcerus spini- 
ger Gerst. : a ground-weevil, large, black, with rugose 
elytra and short blunt rostrum. M. looked at it a 
long while before taking it; ran about with it as if 
challenging the other monkey to take it, then bit off 
the rostrum and ate the beetle with difficulty. It 
seemed very hard and M.’s attitude suggested that he 
was only eating it to spite the other monkey ! 
Obs. 461. Sp. 22.—Acridiid, Dictyophorus produc- 
tus: M. looked long at this grasshopper as it crawled 
on the ground, then picked it up and ran about with 
it in play, then dropped it. 
Obs. 462. Sp. 186.—Five of these Acridians (Catan- 
tops decoratus Gerst.) eaten eagerly. A medium-sized, 
procryptic, grey grasshopper used as staple food. 
Obs. 463. Sp. 222.—Pyrrhocorid, Roscius illustris 
Gerst.: a large black bug, with red head, an orange 
spot on each side of the thorax, and two orange spots 
on each tegmen. Extremely conspicuous. M. looked 
at it, smelt it, bit off and ate its head, then ate the 
rest without definite sign of pleasure or dislike. 
Obs. 464. Sp. 223.—Bromophila caffra Macq.: a 
very large and sluggish black fly with crimson head, 
extremely conspicuous at rest, or when flying, which it 
does slowly and heavily, being remarkably easy to 
catch. Any human would say, “ What a disgusting- 
looking fly!” It was offered to M. in a box; he 
looked long at it, with his head on one side, took it 
out, and threw it down in disgust. 
Obs. 465. Sp. 224.—Buprestid, Agelia peteli Gory : 
a large black beetle, with symmetrical pale greenish- 
white areas on the elytra and an orange mark on 
