VARIOUS INSECTS EATEN AS FOOD. 353 



pests of the forest, the female depositing her eggs on 

 the oak. 



Les vers pahniste, as the French term them {Calatidra 

 pahnarum, Oliv.), are eaten broiled, with poor man's 

 sauce, that is water, salt, lemon, and chillies. 



Even the gigantic centipedes of Brazil, many of them 

 a foot and a half long and half an inch broad were seen 

 by Humboldt to be dragged out of their holes and 

 crunched alive by the children. Darwin assures us that 

 the caterpillar of the hawk -moth is delicious. Kirby 

 and Spence think the ant good eating, distinguishing 

 between the flavour of the abdomen and the thorax ; 

 and Reaumur recommends the caterpillar of the Plusia 

 gamma as a delicate dish.* 



A certain large grub (probably the larva of a species 

 of Btiprestis), found abundantly in Western Australia, at 

 the roots of the Acacia, is much in request with the 

 natives, who eat it. 



The larvaB of all the wood-boring beetles are eagerly 

 sought after by the aborigines of Australia, especially 

 BardMes cibarim, which, though exhaling an odour at 

 least as pungent as that of the goat moth, is much 

 relished by the natives of King George's Sound. The 

 negro of the West Indies and Tropical America searches 

 diligently for the gi-u-gru worm (Rhyncophorus palmarum). 

 The grub is an inch and a half long, of a white colour. 



In the Moluccas, Wallace tells us that the grubs of the 

 palm beetles are regularly brought to market in bam- 

 boos and sold for food. The natives of Mexico make 

 the larva of Trichoderes pini a part of their fare. 



An old writer — Brookes, " On the Properties and Uses 

 of Insects," 1772 — says, " The larvae are eaten by the 

 French, in the West Indies, after they have been roasted 

 before the fire, when a small wooden spit has been thrust 

 through them. When they begin to be hot, they powder 

 them with a crust of rasped bread, mixed with salt, and 

 a little pepper and nutmeg. This powder keeps in the 



* " History of Insects.'' 



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