Sections

After an introduction to Vincent Holt’s ‘Why Not Eat Insects?‘, I thought I would share some recipes from the book. Before I do, I hope you enjoy a quotation about the delights of eating insects from the author:

Does not the sweet scent of our cooked bodies tempt you? Fry us with butter, we are delicious. Boil us, grill us, stew us; we are good all ways!

I have adapted these recipes slightly to make them into instructional lists with steps. In the book they are interdispersed and written in continous prose.

Whilst the book touches on the subject, as with any wild food, you should consider the source so the food is free from unwanted contaminants. Collecting along a busy road, a path frequented by many dogs, or a sewage outlet is unwise. I am not recommending that anyone tries these recipes, although after trying them I shall report back. The woodlouse sauce is the one I will probably try first.

Fried Grasshoppers
Catch some large grasshoppers of an abundant species (Chorthippus brunneus would probably be good)
Remove the heads, legs and wings
Sprinkle the bodies with salt, peper and chopped parsley
Fry in butter then sprinkle with vinegar

Dressed Snails*
Boil the snails for 15 minutes
Remove the boiled snails from their shells then clean them thoroughly
Boil the cleaned, shelless snails for a further 15 minutes
Rinse and dry the snails, then fry gently in butter until golden brown

Woodlouse Sauce
Collect a quantity of the finest wood-lice to be found
Place the woodlice in boiling water
In a separate pan, melt ~100g (1/4 lb) of butter
To the melted butter, add: a teaspoon (6mL) of flour, small glass of water, a little milk and some salt and pepper
Cook the butter-based sauce until thick, the add the boiled woodlice

This sauce is supposed to go well with fish…

* Note: The author recommends keeping a simple snail enclosure, allowing you to control the vegetation they eat and preventing them from eating unsavoury plants, or plants poisonous to humans.

Reference:
Holt, V.M. (2007) WHY NOT EAT INSECTS? Whitstable, Pryor Publications Whitstable and Walsall.
Note: The original was book was published in 1885. The version I have is a fascimile.

The desert locust, Schistocerca gregaria (Orthoptera: Acrididae), is one of the most important crop pests in the world. It usually lives in relative solitude but under certain conditions it starts to swarm, causing significant loss of vegetation and crops.

Locust nymph eating lettuce

The swarming response results in a number of changes in the locust: alteration of the normal camouflage to more striking colouration and the change in behaviour that causes them to gather together into a swarm (called a band if they are nymphs).

Scientists knew about the physical stimuli which causes swarming but were uncertain about the underlying biochemical changes. The physical stimulus was experimentally demonstrated using a small paintbrush to ‘tickle’ the locusts and found that the hind femora was the most effective site for inducing swarming (Simpson et al, 2001).

The hind femora caused the highest percentage, 76% to 100% (shown in red), of S. gregaria to exhibit swarming behaviour (adapted from Simpson et al, 2001). © Malin Nikunlassi

Recently scientists discovered the major component of the signalling pathway which results in swarming: the neurochemical serotonin (Anstey et al, 2009), a neurotransmitter found in many organisms, from insects to humans.

Serotonin - based on the amino acid tryptophan with an additional hydroxyl group (OH) marked in red. © Malin Nikunlassi

Knowledge about the role that serotonin plays may provide new novel ways of controlling the locusts without resorting to mass spraying of pesticides.

For additional reading on locusts and grasshoppers as pest species, visit the International Society for Pest Information which has a number of freely available full text resources.

References:

Simpson S.J., Despland E., Hägele B.F. and Dodgson T. (2001) Gregarious behavior in desert locusts is evoked by touching their back legs. PNAS 98: 3895-3897

Anstey M.L., Rogers S.M., Ott S.R., Burrows M. and Simpson S.J. (2009) Serotonin Mediates Gregarization Underlying Swarm Formation in Desert Locusts. Science 323: 627-630

Following on from two earlier posts (first post, second post) I tried the three invertebrate snacks that I got from Selfridges and, using the correct binomial names (as two of the names were wrong on the packaging), here are my thoughts:

I was disappointed with the very mild curry taste of the thai green curry crickets (Acheta domesticus) which didn’t taste like thai green curry at all, more like mild curry powder, but had an inoffensive taste overall. This was an interesting species to try because it is commonly sold in pet shops as reptile/invertebrate food and will happily live on many things (including vegetable waste) making it a viable invertebrate to culture for human food.

Edible insect: chocolate covered scorpion

The chocolate covered scorpion (Mesobuthus martensii) was fairly pleasant; the crunchy texture of the scorpion went well with the chocolate, making it feel like a biscuit. There was a very subtle taste of something savoury but it was masked by the taste of the chocolate. I would eat these again and so would my girlfriend.

Edible insect: giant toasted ant

A number of my friends tried the giant toasted ants (Atta cephalotes) and none of them liked the taste or the smell. I was the only one that liked them but they do have a very strong and distinctive taste, so I can see why they didn’t get universal taste bud acclaim! I think the packet description is fairly accurate, “… similar to crispy bacon with an earthy taste”.

I had a good time trying these and I intend to pursue the topic of insects as a food in further posts. If you’re interested in reading a bit more about insects and food now, have a read of Bug Girl’s latest post on cochineal, an insect derived food colouring.

I shall add some photos to this post soon.

Earlier in December I wrote about a new range of snacks that Selfridges had started to sell, and during a Christmas trip to London I visited Selfridges to buy some. I (and some friends) will be eating them soon to provide you some more photos and to describe how they taste.

Tenebrio molitor lollypops: part of the Selfridges display of invertebrate snacks (Copyright Elizabeth Livermore)

All of the snacks were from edible, an alternative online food shop, and were a little cheaper to buy at Selfridges than from the edible website.

I checked the packaging and found that the species names did not follow the proper protocol for binomial nomenclature: all names were either entirely in lowercase or uppercase, and none were italicised. The class of the scorpion was listed incorrectly as ‘INSECTA’ when it should have been Arachnida.

From left to right: Giant toasted ants, £12.45; Thai green curry crickets, £2.44; and a chocolate covered scorpion, £4.64.

I also investigated the species names (Giant toasted ants: Atta cephalotes, Thai green curry crickets: Acheta domestica, and the chocolate covered scorpion: Buthus martensii) and from my brief searches, A. cephalotes seems correct but the other two are synonyms.

I checked A. domestica in the Orthoptera Species File and it is listed as an unjustified emendation of A. domesticus. I found an entry for Mesobuthus martensii on the UniProt Taxonomy database where it listed B. martensii as a synonym.

I guess edible are not quite as good biologists as you would hope.

I have recently received the December issue of the Amateur Entomologists’ Society (AES) journal, The Bulletin, which has a strong orthopteroid theme this month and announced a number of affiliations. This post is a brief summary of the some of the news and articles.

The AES are now formerly affiliated with the Quekett Microscopical Club and the Conchological Society of Great Britain and Ireland. The AES Bug Club Magazine will now be produced in partnership with the Royal Entomological Society.

The first article, written by Ed Baker, covering orthopteroid insects was a summary of internet resources for the orders Orthoptera, Phasmida, Mantodea and Blattodea. Each of these orders have an online taxonomic database made using Species File Software and the Phasmida and Blattodea have their own active enthusiasts’ groups, the Phasmid Study Group and the Blattodea Culture Group, which use the European Distributed Institute of Taxonomy’s Scratchpad software. Links to all of the sites mentioned in the article can be found below (and some are already in the side links).

The second article, written by Dr Peter Sutton, covered the launch and details of the Orthopteroids of the British Isles Recording Scheme and Website. I have briefly written about the recording scheme before but if you want more details on the scheme then the article is worth reading.

The third article, written by Dr Peter Sutton, documented a search in Massif Central, France for the threatened bush-cricket, Gampsocleis glabra.

The last article I found particularly interesting was ‘Notes on Collecting Fleas’ by Bob George. Fleas are one of the orders that I’ve spent little time studying, so I found this a useful and inspiring read. The article covered methods of collecting and some of the legal/ethical responsibilities when collecting.

Links:

Blattodea Species File | Blattodea Culture Group

The Cockroach Forum | Phasmid Species File | Phasmid Study Group

Phasmatodea.de | Mantodea Species File | Mantis Study Group |

Mantophasmatodea.de | Orthoptera Species File

Dermaptera Species File

Reference:
Wilkins, P. (Ed.) and Hough, M. (Ed.). The Bulletin of the Amateur Entomologists’ Society, vol. 67, no. 481. December 2008.

The annual Orthopterists’ Meeting took place last week on Wednesday 19th November at The Natural History Museum. Whilst I was unable to arrive early enough for all the talks I managed to catch Peter Sutton’s lecture on ‘British Orthoptera, the current state of affairs’ which I shall discuss in a later post. His lecture was followed by the launch of the Orthoptera Recording Scheme website which will provide information on the Orthopteroids of the British Isles and enable the submission of sightings.

Anyone can submit sightings along with a photo to allow verification of the sighting identification. Once the record(s) has been verified they will be added to the National Biodiversity Network and the appropriate distribution map.

It will be interesting to follow the progress of the site and hopefully see more entomological recording sites in the future.