Mar. 30, 1888.] 



SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



299 



Natural W^mtvi. 



EDIBLE ANTS: A NEW CHAPTER IN 

 COOKERY. 

 Not long ago an enthusiast, or possibly a "joker of 

 jokes," wrote a book in which he recommended 

 insects as an article of human diet. Now, leaving out 

 of consideration the feelings of disgust and horror which 

 such a proposal called up in the mind of John Bull, 

 and especially of his better half, we must remind our 

 readers that not a few insects secrete formidable poisons. 

 Thus, insect-eating is an experiment which should not 

 be tried " with a light heart." Still it must be admitted 

 that certain savage tribes in central Africa, the Malay 

 Islands, and Australia, vary their diet from time to time 

 with a dish of caterpillars. In many tropical regions the 

 " white ant " — which is not an ant at all, but belongs 

 to a totally different order — is eaten with relish, not 

 merely by the natives, but by European residents, and 



with the much larger ant at the upper, right-hand corner. 

 It is a problem of no little difficulty to explain how or 

 why these two different forms should occur, so to speak, 

 promiscuously in one and the same brood. The season 

 of the year and the age of the parents do not seem to have 

 in this respect any influence. 



This ant, like too many others, commits grievous 

 ravages in the plantations, so that its employment for food 

 is a kind of compensation, though very far from being 

 adequate. It is a leaf-ciitkr : that is, swarms of this ant 

 climb up a tree and cut off pieces of leaves about the size 

 a sixpence. These are then carried off to the nest. The 

 long procession of ants, each carrying a segment of a 

 leaf, has a most singular appearance. To a hasty 

 observer it might seem as if the leaves were in sponta- 

 neous motion. Unfortunately they attack, in preference, 

 the most useful trees, such as the coffee and the 

 orange. 



A coffee plantation has been known to be completely 

 stripped of its leaves in a single night, the result being 



Edible Ants. 



is said to taste like sugar and cream, or, according to 

 other authorities, like sweetened almond-paste. 



But it is not generally known that in the province of 

 San Paulo, in Brazil, a large species of true ant is a 

 recognised article of food. 



These ants, called in the Brazilian Portuguese tongue 

 Formigas Tanajuras, when in season, are roasted, like 

 chestnuts, until they are of a nice brown colour, and are 

 then hawked about the streets by women, who cry va 

 ica, which means " something to eat," and are eagerly 

 bought up. 



By way of attracting notice, the dealers dress up some 

 of these ants like dolls. 



The eatable ants of Brazil belong to the species Atta 

 cephalotes. The large winged specimen, in our illus- 

 tration borrowed from La Nature, is the female; the 

 one represented in the act of flight is the male, which 

 is considerably smaller. The neuters, or working ants, 

 which are wingless, are found in two forms, differing 

 very greatly in size, as will be seen on comparing the 

 small figure at the left-hand bottom corner of the cut, 



the loss of the year's crops. Where such inroads are 

 often repeated or continual, the trees are destroyed out- 

 right. Our late lamented friend, Thomas Belt, then re- 

 siding in Nicaragua, combated them successfully with 

 carbolic acid and with corrosive sublimate. 



To what use the ants put these leaves, which they 

 collect so diligently, is still a matter of dispute. Belt sug- 

 gested that they formed in the nests a kind of hot-bed 

 upon which grow certain small fungi used by the ants 

 as food. That the fungus actually grows in the under- 

 ground chambers of the nest is certain, and that the 

 degree of moisture and the temperature of these cellars is 

 carefully watched over is no less established ; but it 

 has not yet been proved that the ants actually eat the 

 fungus. 



Dr. McCook, on the other hand, a ^great authority on 

 ant-life, contends that the leaves, by fermentation, 

 are converted into agreyish or brownish paper-like matter, 

 which the ants employ in the construction of hexagonal 

 cells resembling those of bees and wasps, but less regular. 



It must be remembered that several distinct species of 



