Notices of New Books. 4347 



thrown down on the floor, where they continue to crawl along appa- 

 rently unaware of the loss of their posterior extremities. They are 

 kept in calabashes or bottle-shaped baskets, the mouths of which are 

 stopped up with a few leaves, and it is rather a singular sight to see 

 for the first time an Indian taking his breakfast in the sailba season. 

 He opens the basket, and as the great-winged ants crawl slowly out, 

 he picks them up carefully and transfers them with alternate handfuls 

 of farina to his mouth. When great quantities are caught, they are 

 slightly roasted or smoked, with a little salt sprinkled among them, 

 and are then generally much liked by Europeans. 



" The next insect in the list is the Termes flavicolle, Perty ; a 

 large white ant common in the Upper Amazon. It inhabits holes in 

 the earth about the roots of rotten trees, and is much sought after for 

 food by the great ant-eater (Myrmecophaga jubata), as well as by the 

 Indians. In this case it is not the winged female that is eaten, but 

 the great-headed, hard-biting worker, and it is by means of his jaws 

 that the creature is entrapped. An Indian boy going after cupim, 

 takes with him a calabash or a bottle basket, and searches about for a 

 nest. He then scrapes away some of the earth, and taking a long 

 piece of grass inserts it as far as it will go, and on withdrawing it, 

 finds ten or a dozen Termes holding tightly on to it ; and he repeats 

 this operation till he fills his basket. These insects are also eaten 

 alive or roasted ; but in this case it is not the abdomen, but the enor- 

 mous head and thorax which is devoured, as those parts contain a 

 considerable mass of muscular matter. These insects have generally 

 a bitter taste, and are not much esteemed except by the Indians 

 themselves. 



" The edible Homopterous insect is the Umbonia spinosa, which 

 swarms at certain seasons on the Inga trees, which are universally 

 planted by the Indians near their cottages, for the sake of the fruit, 

 which is much esteemed by them. The insects fall upon the ground 

 in great numbers, and the sharp spine on their thorax renders walking 

 barefoot very disagreeable. This spine seems to render them very ill 

 adapted for food, but when they first appear the whole body is soft 

 and flaccid, and they are then collected and roasted in a flat earthen 

 pan. They are not, however, so much esteemed as the other insects 

 I have mentioned. 



" The next edible insect I shall allude to is the larva of a beetle, 

 but of what species or genus I am unable to say, though it is proba- 

 bly a Calandra, as it is found in the stem of a palm-tree. It is much 

 swollen, and attenuated at each end ; and is a rich fatty mass, which 



