254 DIRECT BEISTEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS. 



diet than the swine or the duck, which form a favourite part 

 of ours.^ 



Many larvse ^ that belong to the order Coleoptera are eaten 

 in different parts of the world. The grub of the palm-weevil 

 (Cordylia^ palmarum), which is the size of the thumb, has 

 been long in request in both the Indies, ^lian speaks of an 

 Indian king, who, for a dessert, instead of fruit set before his 

 Grecian guests a roasted worm taken from a plant, probably 

 the larva of this insect, which he says the Indians esteem 

 very delicious — a character that was confirmed by some of 

 the Greeks who tasted it.^ Madam Merian has figured one of 

 these larv^, and says that the natives of Surinam roast and 

 eat them as something very exquisite.^ A friend of mine, 

 who has resided a good deal in the West Indies, where the 

 palm-grub is called Grugru, informs me that the late Sir 

 John La Forey, who was somewhat of an epicure, was 

 extremely fond of it when properly cooked. 



The larvo3 also of the larger species of the Capricorn tribe 

 {Ceramhjx L.; Longicornes Latr.) are accounted very great 

 delicacies in many countries ; and the Cossus of Pliny, which 

 he tells us the Roman epicures fattened with flour ^, most 

 probably belonged to this tribe. Linne indeed, following the 

 opinion of Hay ^, supposes the caterpillar of the great goat- 



1 A long and interesting paper by the Rev. F. W. Hope upon edible insects 

 has appeared in the Trans. Ent. Soc. (vol. iii. part 2.), whilst tliis sheet is going 

 through the press, to which we are unable therefore more fully to refer. 



2 Baron Plumboldt asks {Person. Narr. VI. i. 8. note) — " What are those 

 worms (Loul in Arabic) which Captain Lyon, the fellow-traveller of ray brave 

 and unfortunate friend Mr. Ritchie, found in the pools of the desert of Fezzan, 

 which served the Arabs for food, and which have the taste of caviare ? Are they 

 not insects' eggs resembling the Aguauth, which I saw sold in the markets of 

 Mexico, and which are collected on the surface of the lakes of Texcuco ?" For 

 this latter fact he refers to the Gazeta de Litteratura cle Mexico, 1 794, iii. No. 26. 

 p. 201. It appears from this note of the illustrious traveller, that insects are 

 used as food in their egg as well as their other states. 



^ Herbst and Schonherr call this distinct genus Rhyneophorus ; but as this is 

 too near the name of the tribe {Rhyncophora), we have adopted Thunberg's name, 

 altering the termination, to distinguish it from Cordyle, a genus of Lizards. 



4 MVxan, Hist. 1. xiv. c. 13. ; quoted in Reaum. ii. 343. 



5 Ins. Sur. 48. 6 Hist. Nat. 1. xvii. c. 24. 



7 Wisdom of God, 9th ed. 307. Ray first adopted the opinion here maintained, 

 that the Cossi were the larvae of some beetle ; but afterwards, from observing in 

 the caterpillar of Cossus liyniperda a power of retracting its prolegs within the 

 body, he conjectured that the hexapod larva from Jamaica {Prionus damicornis ?), 

 given him by Sir Hans Sloane, might have the same faculty, and so be the 

 caterpillar of a Bombyx. 



