176 DIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS. 



eat them by handfuls as we do comfits. He has eaten them dressed in 

 this way several times, and thought them delicate, nourishing, and whole- 

 some, being sweeter than the grub of the weevil of the palms (Cordylia 

 Palmarum), and resembling in taste sugared cream or sweet almond paste. 1 

 The female ant, in particular, is supposed by the Hindoos to be endowed 

 with highly nutritive properties, and, we are told by Mr. Broughton, was 

 carefully sought after and preserved for the use of the debilitated Surjee 

 Rao, prime-minister of Scindia, chief of the Mahrattas. 2 



The Hymenoptera order also furnishes a few articles to add to this head. 

 I do not allude to the nectar which the bees collect for us. But perhaps 

 you do not suspect that bees themselves in some places serve for food, yet 

 Knox tells us that they are eaten in Ceylon 3 : an ungrateful return for 

 their honey and wax, which 1 would on no account recommend. Piso 

 speaks of yellow ants called Cupid inhabiting Brazil, the abdomen of which 

 many used for food, as well as a larger species under the name of Tama* 

 joura*; which account is confirmed by Humboldt, who informs us that 

 ants are eaten by the Marivatanos and Margueritares, mixed with resin for 

 sauce ; as are those of Yariba in Africa, as Lander informs us, stewed in 

 butter. Ants, I speak from experience, have no unpleasant flavour ; they 

 are very agreeably acid, and the taste of the trunk and abdomen is 

 different ; so that I am not so much surprised, as Mr. Consett seems to have 

 been, at the avidity with which the young Swede mentioned by him sat 

 down to the siege of an ant's nest. 5 This author states, that in some parts 

 of Sweden ants are distilled along with rye, to give a flavour to the inferior 

 kinds of brandy. 6 Under this head may not improperly be mentioned 

 several galls, the product of different species of gall-flies (Cynips), particu- 

 larly those found on some kinds of Sage, viz. Salvia pomifera, S. triloba, and 

 S. officinatis, which are very juicy like apples, and crowned with rudiments 

 of leaves resembling the calyx of that fruit. They are esteemed in the 

 Levant for their aromatic and acid flavour, especially when prepared with 

 sugar, and form a considerable article of commerce from Scio to Con- 

 stantinople, where they are regularly exposed in the market. 7 The galls 

 of ground-ivy have also been eaten in France ; but Reaumur, who tasted 

 them, is doubtful whether they will ever rank with good fruits. 8 



To the Diptera order, as a source of food, man can scarcely be said to 

 be under any obligation ; the larva of Tyrophaga casei, which is so com- 

 monly found in cheese, being the only one ever eaten a dainty as some 

 think it, of whom you will perhaps say with Scopoli, " quibus has delicias 

 non invideo." 9 



The order Aptera, now that the Crustacea are excluded, does not much 

 more abound in esculent insects than the Dipiera. The only species which 

 have tempted the appetite of man in this order are the cheese-mite 

 (Acarus Siro) lice, which are eaten by the Hottentots and natives of the 

 western coast of Africa, who, from their love of this game, which they not 

 only collect themselves from their well-stored capital pasture, but employ 



i Smeathman, 31. 



8 Letters written in a Mahratta Camp in 1809. 



s Knox's Ceylon, 25. 



* Piso, Ind. 1. v. c. 13, 291. Travels in Sweden, 118. Ibid. 



' Smith's Introd to Bot. 346. Olivier's Travels, i. 139. 



8 Reauin. iii. 416. Scop. Carniol 337. 



