DIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS. 261 



their honey and wax, which I would on no account recom- 

 mend. Piso speaks of yellow ants called Cupid inhabiting 

 Brazil, the abdomen of which many used for food, as well as 

 a larger species under the name of Tama-joura ^ ; which ac- 

 count is confirmed by Humboldt, who informs us that ants 

 are eaten by the Marivatanos and Margueritares, mixed with 

 resin for sauce ; as are those of Yariba in Africa, as Lander 

 informs us, stewed in butter. Ants, I speak from experience, 

 have no unpleasant flavour ; they are very agreeably acid, and 

 the taste of the trunk and abdomen is different ; so that I am 

 not so much surprised, as Mr. Consett seems to have been, at 

 the avidity with which the young Swede mentioned by him 

 sat down to the siege of an ants' nest."^ This author states, 

 that in some parts of Sweden ants are distilled along with rye, 

 to give a flavour to the inferior kinds of brandy.'^ Under 

 this head may not improperly be mentioned several galls, the 

 product of diflerent species of gall-flies particularly 

 those found on some kinds of Sage, viz. Salvia pomifera, S. 

 triloba, and S. officinalis, which are very juicy like apples, 

 and crowned with rudiments of leaves resembling the calyx 

 of that fruit. They are esteemed in the Levant for their aro- 

 matic and acid flavour, especially when prepared with sugar, 

 and form a considerable article of commerce from Scio to Con- 

 stantinople, where they are regularly exposed in the market.* 

 The galls of ground-ivy have also been eaten in France ; but 

 Reaumur, who tasted them, is doubtful whether they will ever 

 rank with good fruits.^ 



To the Diptera order, as a source of food, man can scarcely 

 be said to be under any obligation ; the larva of Tyrophaga 

 casei, which is so commonly found in cheese, being the only 

 one ever eaten — a dainty as some think it, of whom you 

 will perhaps say with Scopoli, " quibus has delicias non in- 

 video:'' ^ 



The order Aptera, now that the Crustacea are excluded, 

 does not much more abound in esculent insects than the Dip- 

 tera. The only species which have tempted the appetite of 



> Piso, Irid. 1. V. c. 13.291. Travels in Sweden, 118. 3 Jbid. 



4 Smith's Introd. to Bot. 346. Olivier's Travels, I 139. 



& Reaum. iii. 416. ^ Scop. Carniol. 337. 



S 3 



