350 General Biology 



In the markets of Manila large piles of grasshoppers with their 

 appendages removed are offered for sale, ready for cooking. The Moors 

 fry locusts in butter, and they are said to make a very palatable dish. 

 In fact, many of the Indian tribes have been known to use not only 

 grasshoppers, but ants as well, as a part of their diet. The natives of 

 Uganda keep crickets in a warm oven for their musical sounds. In China 

 it is said that fights are staged between crickets and that this is a 

 favorite method of gambling. 



The larva, or grub, of the warble fly is eaten by the Dog Rib 

 Indians who are fond of caribou which in turn is thoroughly infected 

 with these grubs. The grubs are eaten raw- and the children consider 

 them a great delicacy. 



To this list may be added moths and caterpillars, eaten by both Pai 

 Ute Indians and the Australian Bushmen, while bugs, beetles and the 

 eggs of these insects complete the list. The Manna of the Old Testa- 

 ment is considered by entomologists to be the secretion, somewhat like 

 honey, from an insect. These manna insects, now called Gossyparia 

 mannifers ( ), according to Ealand, infested the 



smaller branches of Tamarix gallica ( ) in large 



numbers, sucked up sap in quantities, and exuded manna in the form of 

 a sugary secretion which, in the cool of the evening, fell to the ground 

 in solid form, but, after sunrise, melted and percolated the coil. 



Conditions of the past have been changed since man has learned 

 to till the soil. Insects now obtain other food and their conditions of 

 life have changed so that comparisons of the present with ancient times 

 when men lived under vastly different conditions, are often likely to lead 

 one astray. The effect of changes of conditions is particularly noticeable 

 among agricultural peoples who seldom use insects as food. In famines, 

 anything could be relished and it was no> wonder that such peoples 

 often turned to a diet not commonly used, and then after an acquired 

 taste had been brought about (just as it is known that practically no 

 one likes olives the first time they are eaten, but can acquire a very 

 considerable taste for them later) the children who had been fed upon 

 such diet actually relished it as they grew up. No better proof of this 

 could be found than the fact that pigeons and rabbits never normally 

 eat meat, but, if they are fed meat alone from birth, they will die rather 

 than eat a normal pigeon's or rabbit's food when they have become 

 fully grown. 



In addition to being used as food, insects have formed a great source 

 from which various oils and other medicinal substances have been 

 abstracted from time immemorial. All historical literature is filled with 

 references to this use of insects. 



Over against this beneficial use of insects may be placed the great 

 devastations in our own country by the periodical locusts which sweep 

 grain fields bare before them, and other crop-injuring pests, such as boll 



