NATIVE DELICACIES

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 46, 1 September 1928, Page 26

NATIVE DELICACIES

PARTIALITY FOR INSECTS. ' Mr E. G. Boulenger (director of the Zoological Society's Aquarium in Loudon) has written an articlo in tie London "Daily Telegraph," not with the obiect of presenting arguments in ±ayour of regarding insects as a valuable food, but merely to interest gastronomes iv an insectivorous bill of tare such as is enjoyed by the "best people in many parts of the world. What constitutes a good dinner is a matter more of education than of taste, ho says, and most natives of Eastern Asia or South American who would be repelled by the normal European fare smack lips in anticipation of a savoury meal composed of such delicacies as giant maggots and grasshoppers. At the present day it is only among comparatively priini- ; tive members of the human race that animals with more than four legs are eaten, but in ancient times the cultivated Greeks and Romans regarded various species of insects :.s "bonnes bouches." Pliny informs us that the gourmets of his time praised specially highly the grubs of a beetle living in the trunk of trees, and that the creatures were fed on meal soaked m wine in order to fatten them for the table. In both the Old and the New Testament there are a number of allusions to insects as food. When during the Great War the food resources of the nation wero imperilled, an eminent biologist set to work to ascertain the food values of various insects. It is uot difficult to imagine the alarm that would have resulted from any official recommendation for the adoption of an insectivorous diet. In parts of Northern Africa the farmer still roasts the destructive locust as a compensation for having his crops ruined, while in other localities, where the produce is barely sufficient for the inhabitants, the normally much-dreaded flights of this insect are looked upon as a blessing. Numerous caterpillars are eaten in various parts of the world, the larvae of the giant Goliath beetle having a specially high reputation, and being considered a gasronomie treat by the natives of Central Africa. The j larvae of the weaver moth of the Congo, which have the habit of congregating to the number of twenty or more and spinning a communal silky nest, aro very popular as an article of diet, and their abodes are offered for sale in the village markets. A giant water-bug inhabiting Mexico, an enormous creature which lives on frogs and fish, is much enjoyed as a. side dish in its native land after being toasted upon wooden spits before a slow fire. It has, iv fact, been favourably reported upon by European gourmets. Ants, in spite of their very acid flavour, are eaten' in many parts of the world. They are usually made into a paste and spread on bread and butter. In Northern Australia the ants aro mashed up in water after the manner of a lemon squash, the creatures forming the flavouring of a drink highly appreciated by the natives. On some of the Central. Afrie.ii) lakes a minute midge rises from the water in dense clouds. When driven towards the shore by the wind they ure caught by the inhabitants, who compress them and make them into cakes, which arc regarded as delicious food. These cukes are specially popular with (.ho female population, as they are very fattening, and arc an aid to the native liulies in acquiring that degree of plumpness which corresponds with the men's notion of beaul.\'. An insect which we have probably all consumed is the bright red cochineal insect, a form allied to that garden pest the ' aphis or green ily, for it is this creature that yields the scarlet dye used in ornamenting a host of dishes. In its .commercial form it resembles a currant.. The winged male is slender and active, but the wingless female is just a bag of akin with a few appendages, ami leads the dullest possible existence. When quite a baby the lady cochineal insect attaches herself to a cactus plant, into which she inserts her proboscis, and there she remains until she lays her eggs—and dies. A cochinealary may consist of 100,000 cactus plants kept trimmed to v height of sft, for the convenient gathering of the crop. When ready, the insects are brushed into baskets and baked in an oven. The value of the insects annually exported to the dinner tables of Great Britain amounts to close on ,£500,000.