Chapter
20
NORTH
AND WEST AFRICA
Overview
The region as treated
here includes all countries in the bulge of West Africa (on the southern coast
from Nigeria westward) and to the east Chad, Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia and
countries north. Insects of at least 25
species are eaten, belonging to at least 21 genera, 13 families and 7 orders
(see the Regional Taxonomic Inventory below).
Of this group, the specific identity is known for only 21 species, the generic
identity for another 4, only the family identity for one and the order identity
for one. Nigeria is the best-studied
country in the region insofar as its food insect use is concerned, and it is
presented first with others following alphabetically. Other countries on the southern coast of West Africa probably
have edible insect use similar in variety to that of Nigeria, but less
information is available. North of the
coastal countries, the variety is greatly reduced, limited mainly to locusts,
and primarily the desert locust, Schistocerca gregaria.
Regional Taxonomic Inventory
Taxa and stages
consumed Countries
Coleoptera
Beetles/beetle larvae Ivory
Coast, Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone
Cerambycidae (long-horned beetles)
Ancylonotus tribulus (Fabr.), larva Senegal
Dorysthenes forficalus Fabr., larva Morocco
Omacantha gigas Fabr., larva Senegal
Curculionidae (weevils, snout beetles)
Rhynchophorus phoenicis (Fabr.), larva Southern
coastal countries
Scarabaeidae (scarab beetles)
Ateuches sacar Linn. Egypt
Oryctes boas Fabr., larva Nigeria
Oryctes owariensis Beauvois, larva, adult? Fernando Po, Ghana, Sierra
Leone
Scarabaeid larvae, pupae, adults Southern
coastal countries
Tenebrionidae (darkling beetles)
Blaps sp., adult Tunisia
Pimelia sp., adult North
Africa
Tenebrio sp., adult North
Africa
Hemiptera
Corixidae (water boatmen)
Corixa esculenta (author?), egg Egypt
Hymenoptera
Apidae (honey bees)
Bee larvae Sierra
Leone
Isoptera
Winged termites Burkina Faso, Mali, Sudan, southern coastal countries
Termitidae
Bellicositermes sp., winged adult Ivory
Coast
Macrotermes bellicosus (Smeathman), winged adult, queen Guinea, Nigeria
Macrotermes natalensis (Haviland), winged adult, queen Nigeria
Lepidoptera
Caterpillars Ivory
Coast, Mali
Notodontidae (prominents)
Anaphe infracta Walsingham, larva Nigeria
Anaphe reticulata Walker, larva Nigeria
Anaphe venata Butler, larva Nigeria
Saturniidae (giant silkworm moths)
Cirina butyrospermi Vuillet, larva Mali
Cirina forda (Westwood), larva Burkina
Faso, Nigeria
Odonata
Dragonflies Nigeria
Orthoptera
Acrididae (short-horned grasshoppers)
Acridium perigrinum (author?), adult Morocco
Cyrtacanthacris aeruginosa unicolor Uvarov, adult Nigeria
Schistocerca gregaria (Forskal), adult Pan-regional
in north
Locusts/grasshoppers Nearly
pan-regional
Gryllidae (crickets)
Brachytrupes membranaceus Drury Nigeria
Crickets Burkina
Faso
Pyrgomorphidae
Zonocerus variegatus Linn. Nigeria
Studies in Nigeria
show that most Nigerians have had direct or indirect experience with
entomophagy although it is more prevalent in rural than in urbanized areas. As
in other parts of Africa, the more educated persons are more reluctant to admit
that indigenous customs still exist, including the eating of insects. Modern
researchers, however, such as Fasoranti and Ajiboye (1993), believe that
entomophagy should be promoted through education because edible insects can
help significantly in reducing protein deficiency in the country. They also
stress the need for development of mass-rearing methods, rather than continued
reliance on harvesting natural populations.
Development of mass-rearing is particularly important in the case of Anaphe
venata, as pointed out by Ashiru (1988), because of the loss of its host
tree, Triplochiton scleroxylon, to logging.
The saturniid
caterpillar, Cirina forda, is the most widely marketed edible insect in
Nigeria and sells for about twice the price of beef. Others widely marketed are palm grubs (Rhynchophorus phoenicis),
termites, Anaphe larvae, and dried dragonflies. Studies by Ashiru show Anaphe larvae
among the insects that are an unusually good source of fat, having a calorific
value of 6.113 kcal/g. Unfortunately, these larvae have recently come under a
shadow for possible involvement as the cause of a seasonal ataxic
syndrome. Although insects are eaten by
all age groups, some, such as Oryctes beetle grubs and termites are
collected mainly by women and children, and according to Akingbohungbe (1988),
grasshoppers and crickets are eaten mainly by the children.
Much information on
insect use in the southern countries of West Africa has been furnished by
former Peace Corps Volunteers and others on a personal communication basis. In
general, the patterns of insect consumption observed (and probably the species
involved) appear to be similar to those in Nigeria.
The infamous desert
locust, Schistocerca gregaria gregaria (Forskal), is widely distributed,
from northern Burma, Nepal and Afganistan across southwestern Asia, North and
West Africa, except for a narrow band along the southern coast of West Africa,
and thence to northeastern Congo (Kinshaza) (Zaire) and southern Tanzania
(Dirsh 1974). It has been reported as
food across Africa and the Middle East, and before the coming of international
locust control programs was widely marketed across North and West Africa. Typically, the desert locust can breed in any
desert-type area when there is sufficient rain. As a pest species, it shows some preference for cereals but is
very polyphagous and virtually all crops are at risk (Hill 1983: 167). Swarm damage usually results in complete
defoliation of the crop and can be devastating over wide areas. Baits, ground and aerial sprays as well as
dusts of various insecticides are used to control the hoppers. Barrier spraying with residual insecticides
such as dieldrin (dieldrin no longer recommended) can be very effective. Sprays are used against the aerial swarms.
No outbreak areas, in
the sense discussed in Chapter 13 for other migratory locust species, have been
found for S. gregaria (Gunn 1960).
In fact, up to that year, at least one swarm had been reported from
somewhere in the vast plague area in every year since 1887. Gunn cites an estimate that 500 sq. miles of
swarms invaded Kenya in January 1954 and that there were probably between 1010
and 5x1010 locusts in the swarms.
Also, the number of desert locusts in Somalia in August 1957 was
estimated at 1.6x1010; at one-third of a million to the ton, the
weight of locusts was 50,000 tons. Or,
as described by Stern (1973), young hoppers frequently congregate in bands at
densities of 18,000 m2 and adults normally at about 300 m2
or about 1.2 million per acre. Stern
states that an average large swarm covers 5 to 130 km2 while a very
large swarm may cover 50 to 1,300 km2 or about 500 sq. miles. At 2 g
per locust, 1.2 million locusts per acre represents 2.4 metric tons per
acre.
Considering its
tremendous numbers and aggregation, it is not surprising that, since olden
times, the desert locust has served as a major food resource throughout the
barren reaches of North Africa. Also
since olden times, an occasional enterprising visionary considered its potential
as a candidate for other commercial-sized food production endeavors. The following excerpt is from A.S. Packard,
U.S. Department of Agriculture (1878):
It is stated in the Bulletin
Mensuel de la Société d'Acclimation (August 1875) that Dr. Morran, a
physician at Douarnenez, in Finistere, has thought of utilizing the African
locust as bait for the sardine‑fishery in the maritime districts of the
coast of Mancha and the Atlantic Ocean. The doctor hopes to substitute this new
bait for that employed until now under the name of roe (rogue), and the price
of which, always increasing, is injurious to the interests of French fishermen.
The locusts cooked in salt water are dried in the sun, and ground. The powder
obtained seems to make as good bait as roe. It has a dark color like that of
the pickled roe of Norway. It preserves all of the nutritive qualities of the
locust. It reabsorbs the pickle, and is fatty, unctuous, and soft to the touch.
Besides, it falls to the bottom of the water, resembling the flesh of craw‑fish,
comminuted and dried fish, of which the sardines are very fond. The insect can
be put up in different ways, as made into biscuit, pickled, salted, pressed, or
dried in the sun. Different methods of preparation have been tried; cooked and
salted, the insects can be piled up in cakes, so as to be easily packed and
transported. They can also be thrown alive, pell‑mell, into brine and
pressed. The first of these methods is employed by the Arabs. The Society of
Agriculture of Algeria recommends smothering the locusts in sacks, then drying
in the sun. The bait prepared in these different modes has been tried at
Douarnenez with good results. The sardines bit at them eagerly. It appears that
in the bodies of a great number of sardines there have been found on
examination the remains of locusts which the fish had swallowd. This last fact,
stated officially, has well satisfied the maritime population of Douarnenez.
One drawback in
considering the potential of the desert locust
as a food resource is that there are relatively long recession periods
between major outbreaks. The most
recent plague years were 1986-1989. The last major plague period prior to that
was 1950-1962. Nevertheless, there are
good reasons for trying to take advantage of the locust's qualities as food,
and changes in locust control tactics are in the offing which would appear to
make this more tenable.
The international
control program conducted against the 1986-1989 plague which afflicted 23
countries from western North Africa to India came under criticism in a report
issued by the U.S. Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) (Gibbons 1990). The report concluded that massive
insecticide spraying is costly, inefficient and ineffective, and questioned
whether the $275 million invested by international aid agencies and the $59
million U.S. investment was worth it.
Criticisms included steeping the continent in pesticides, some of which
are banned in the United States, exposure of workers and domestic animals to
toxic doses of pesticides and other adverse environmental effects. The report
concluded that locusts are less damaging than generally portrayed (for example,
accounting for less than 1% of the crop loss in the nine countries most
affected in 1986), and, further, that weather, not chemical assault brought the
plague to an end. In place of
"crisis management," the report advocated a long-term preventive
strategy which would include integrated pest management (IPM), training of
local workers for control of indigenous pests, and targeting early spraying at
locust breeding areas, thus controlling the locust population before it
explodes.
Showler and Potter
(1991) embrace some of the OTA recommendations in discussing the crop
protection concept which was used
during the 1986-1989 plague and aims to destroy locusts near croplands versus
the newer concept of strategic control which would halt or prevent
plagues by managing sexually immature locusts in major breeding areas. Showler and Potter state:
Nymphal bands are less costly to kill
than swarms because less pesticide per locust is required, bands occupy smaller
areas than swarms, and bait formulations, which are not effective against
flying swarms, can be used . . . The preventive approach involves continuous
surveys in recession breeding areas and control when populations reach
treatment threshold levels. . . annual crop protection costs during a plague
will equal the cost of 15-20 yr of strategic control.
The United Nations General Assembly has endorsed the strategic concept
of using a preventive control strike force.
Showler and Potter
discuss a number of factors relevant to desert locust control including basic
problems such as remoteness of breeding areas, the training, placing and
coordination of preventive control teams, and research needs such as refining
remote sensing technology. They note
that in the last outbreak, trained "farmer brigades" were especially
useful in countries where government crop protection resources were very
limited (Niger, for example, had 10,000 five-person brigades). Unfortunately, they make no mention among
research needs of developing mass-harvest methods for the desert locust as
food.
NIGERIA
Ene (1963) noted
that "many educated and urbanized West Africans are either ignorant of, or
reluctant to admit, the existence of certain indigenous customs such as the
eating of insects; customs which might be regarded as derogatory, and are in
any case fast disappearing with the rapid improvement in education and living
standards." Nevertheless, a questionnaire
survey conducted by Dr. Ene (Nigeria Table 1; see Ene's Table 1) showed that a
high percentage of West Africans have some knowledge or experience with
entomophagy. The bulk of responses to the questionnaire were from Nigerian,
Ghanaian and Cameroonian undergraduate students of Agriculture, Medicine and
Zoology, and a few Nigerian university lecturers and their wives. According to
Ene, "Most people interviewed personally claimed their experiences were
confined to a few occasions before adulthood, when the insects were eaten out
of curiosity, or were offered by relatives or companions."
Ene opines that
insects have come to be regarded by educated people as too dirty or disgusting
to be contemplated as human food because of the many discoveries of association
with disease organisms. He states:
In fact, insects could directly or
indirectly provide man with good quality food.... Queen and alate termites for
instance live in underground brood chambers which are kept 'spic and span' by
the worker‑termites, and are fed throughout on 'processed' food. They
must therefore be reasonably clean and uncontaminated....Besides, it probably
would be much easier to manufacture processed proteins from insect tissues than
from grass or sawdust or any of the other plant tissues as is being attempted
by scientists in various countries. Suitably processed and marketed, therefore,
insects could add to the world's meagre supply of proteins and fats.
Ene mentions that the
insects used as food are mostly those which can be collected in large numbers.
After rainfall, winged termites are "trapped in basins of water around
which lights are placed, or in pits dug in front of the holes through which
they are emerging. After cleaning and salting, they are usually roasted or tied
in parcels and boiled." Crickets
are dug up individually or flushed out of their holes with water at night.
"Edible beetles are picked up around fruit trees and where palm wine is
being tapped. Their larvae are found in the fluff around the leaf bases of palm
trees, and inside decaying tree trunks in the forests."
In the Nigerian
Cookbook, Anthonio and Isoun (1982) state that: "A
variety of insects and larvae are seasonally popular in some areas. They are
fried in their own oil and salted for snacks either alone or with a boiled
carbohydrate food. Residents in your locality should be consulted about such
local delicacies."
Portia L. Gage, who served from
1967 to 1969 as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Shagamu, Western State, about 40
miles north of Lagos, and in Ife, also Western State, about 40 miles east of
Ibadan, furnished information (pers. comm. 1987) on two kinds of edible
insects (see below).
Professor A.E.
Akingbohungbe of Obafemi Awolowo University in Ile‑Ife furnished
information on several species of insects consumed in Nigeria (pers. comm. 1988);
they are discussed below under the appropriate families.
Ivbijaro (1990)
expresses delight that "information is now being gathered on food insects
which, in Nigeria, are important sources of high food protein to rural dwellers
and a growing delicacy to many city dwellers."
According to Fasoranti
and Ajiboye (1993), taboos -- religious and other -- are important
among factors influencing entomophagy in West Africa. The taboos are believed to run generally along ethnic lines, and
the authors set out therefore to investigate beliefs militating against
entomophagy among the four major tribes in Kwara State, the Yoruba, Ibira, Nupe
and Baruba. Seven species of insects
are generally acceptable within these four dominant tribes. A questionnaire was
sent to all local government areas of Kwara State and followed up by personal
interviews to clarify questions that arose from responses to these
questionnaires. The authors conclude
that entomophagy should be promoted through education and that edible insects
can help substantially in reducing the protein deficiency problem that exists
in Kwara State. They stress that only
the development of artificial breeding methods, rather than relying on
harvesting from natural populations, would ensure an abundant and continuous
supply. Food species discussed by the
authors are included below under the appropriate orders and families.
Fasoranti and Ajiboye
discussed several specific taboos, but relative to termite queens they state:
Children are forbidden to eat the
queens for several reasons, not all of which have to do directly with safety to
health. Children form a large
proportion of the farm hands, and the elders believe that if the young ones are
allowed to eat the queens they will cherish the insects and spend so much of
their time searching for them, that productivity in the fields will be reduced.
From similar reasoning, children are discouraged from eating palm
weevil larvae: "As the larvae taste so good, the young ones are likely to
become preoccupied with felling palm trees to provide more breeding sites and a
bumper harvest of larvae.
Indiscriminate felling of trees would deprive the community of primary
palm products such as palm oil, palm kernals, and palm wine."
Coleoptera
Curculionidae (weevils, snout beetles)
Rhynchophorus phoenicis Fabr., larva
"Grubs of the
palm weevil, Rhynchophorus phoenicis Fabr., are fried and eaten in
several parts of Western Nigeria and in Bendel State (old Mid‑Western
Nigeria) where active marketing of the fried grubs takes place. The grub is
called Itun by the Yorubas" (Akingbohungbe 1988).
Palm trees under
stress for any reason and fallen palms serve as breeding sites for R.
phoenicis and can support hundreds of larvae (Fasoranti and Ajiboye 1993). The mature larvae are huge, measuring about
10.5 cm long and 5.5 cm wide. Collected larvae are washed and fried; condiments
added include onion, pepper and a little salt.
"Most people who were interviewed believe that this insect is very
delicious."
Scarabaeidae (scarab beetles)
Oryctes boas Fabr., larva
Scarabaeid larvae and
pupae were mentioned by Ene (1963).
According to Fasoranti and Ajiboye (1993), breeding sites
of O. boas such as dunghills and refuse of various kinds are searched
for by all age groups, but more frequently by the women and children in the
course of their other duties. The
larvae are even larger than palm weevil larvae. After preparation they
are washed thoroughly and fried.
Acceptibility of this insect is decreased because of the
"dirty" nature of the breeding sites, but it is still popular among
most insect eaters.
Family uncertain
Gage reported seeing
some very large larva‑like insects [possibly Rhynchophorus?] being
sold in an area about 100 miles east of Lagos, south of Okitipupa, and near the
town of Aiyetoro near the coast. These people may have been Yoruba or a more
eastern tribe such as the Urhobo, Itsekiri or Western Ibo.
Hymenoptera
Apidae (honey bees)
Ene discusses
apiculture and honey production in Nigeria, noting, however, that "the
honey bee is rarely domesticated and the bulk of the honey offered for sale in
the markets is harvested from hollow trees and rock crevices in the
wild." Note is made of efforts
being made to develop large‑scale bee‑keeping in northern Nigeria,
and Ene suggests that "Beekeeping could quickly lead to a considerable
increase in the earning capacity of peasants in the savannah and borderline
forest areas of West Africa, as it has done for the peasants of Ethiopia and
Portuguese African territories."
He mentions the ready markets for beeswax in Europe and the United
States, noting that, "Large quantities of honeycomb are thrown away each
year in West Africa because the peasant bee‑keepers do not know its value."
Isoptera
Termitidae
Macrotermes bellicosus Smeathman, winged adults, queens
Macrotermes natalensis (Haviland), winged adults, queens
Akingbohungbe (1988)
reported:
Termites (Macrotermes bellicosus Smeathman)
are eaten in several parts of Western Nigeria. The winged adults are usually
caught while on their nuptial flight or collected from the ground after they
have shed their wings, and then roasted for eating. The queen termite is also
eaten but rather infrequently largely because of the difficulty in procuring it
from its protected custody. The winged termites are called Esunsun in Yoruba.
Fasoranti and Ajiboye (1993)
state that the winged reproductives of M. natalensis, which are strongly
attracted to light sources, are eaten by all age groups but are collected
mainly by the women and children.
Termites are sold in the markets when catches are large, while small
collections are consumed at home. They
are fried or roasted. The queen termite
is considered a delicacy for adults only, but can be obtained only when a
termitarium is destroyed.
Family uncertain
At Kukawa, large
termites known as kanam galgalma or tsutsu, when winged and
airborne, are fried and used as food (Barth 1857, III: 4; vide
Bodenheimer 1951: 159).
Gage (1987) didn't
personally see termites being eaten, but relates that, "In the mornings as
I was sweeping up the wings on my front stoop people would tell me that these
insects are good to eat." They are
apparently used in this area by the Yoruba people who roast and eat them as a
snack food ‑ like peanuts. The termites swarm in the evening of rainy
days during the early part of the rainy season. They are attracted to lights in
the dwellings, where they lose their wings, drop to the qround. and are easily
swept up.
Lepidoptera
Notodontidae (prominants)
Anaphe infracta Walsingham, larva
Anaphe reticulata Walker (= ambrizia Butler; = imbrasia), larva
Anaphe spp., larvae
Anaphe venata Butler, larva
Ene discussed the
economic possiblities of silk from the Anaphe caterpillars. Now the
basis of a cottage industry, Ene believes that it might be expanded to provide
a valuable export or even a new modern industry. The two major species are Anaphe
infracta (brown silk) and A. imbrasia (white silk) which feed mainly
on the leaves of Bridelia micrantha and Albyzzia zygia, respectively.
Their communal cocoons may be more than a foot long and weigh up to 24 ounces
when fresh. The fibers are deposited in from six to twelve sheets and can be
separated from each other. In 1931, a German firm was granted a license by the
Nigerian Government and went so far as to plant more than l00,000 stands of Bridalia
micrantha. Several British firms were also interested, but efforts to
exploit the silk were halted by the trade depression that followed World War I.
One drawback to exploiting the silk is that the two Anaphe species are
popular as food among the Yorubas, and the caterpillars are offered for sale in
the markets.
According to Akingbohungbe
(1988): "Caterpillars of African silk moths, Anaphe spp. are
fried dry and eaten as such or used in preparing soup just like dried lobsters
are used. This is especially common in several parts of Ondo State."
Ashiru (1988), in interviews with
35 people in widely separated localities in Nigeria, found that 80% of them
were aware that the larvae of Anaphe venata Butler are edible and 69%
had either eaten the larvae or had household members who had eaten them. The
larvae are prepared by roasting them in hot dry white sand. Forty‑six
percent of the people interviewed attributed the reduced availability of the
larvae in recent years to the logging of the host tree, Triplochiton
scleroxylon. Ashiru considers it noteworthy that more than 20 years after
the 1963 survey by Ene, there is no appreciable reduction in people's awareness
and actual involvement in entomophagy, although he cautions that this finding
might be somewhat biased by the lower average educational level of those
interviewed in the present survey. Insect larvae are eaten mainly by the
peasants in the rural areas rather than by the educated and urbanized
population.
Ashiru presents the
results of proximate, amino acid and mineral analyses in a series of data
tables. Proximate analysis of dried, seventh‑instar field‑collected
larvae from which the long setae had been removed by passing the larvae over a
flame was as follows: moisture 6.61%, crude protein (N x 6.25) 60%, fat 23.22%,
ash 3.21%. Calorific value, determined by a ballistic bomb calorimeter, was
6.113 kcal/g. The author notes that more sophisticated studies of the protein
quality are needed (protein efficiency ratio, true digestibility, etc.), and
concludes that because A. venata is univoltine and its host plant (an
important timber species) is fast disappearing, mass‑rearing would be necessary
to enhance its value as a supplementary protein source in rural areas.
Picton and Mack (1989:
28-29) discuss Anaphe silk and say that although the moths are not
domesticated, in parts of northern Nigeria their breeding is encouraged by the
cultivation of the tamarind tree upon which they feed. Collection of the silk, however, depends
upon chance. They state: "If a
hunter or a farmer happens to find a cocoon he will take it to the nearest
market and sell it. If the cocoon still
contains caterpillars he will be able to get a little more for it than if
pupation has occurred (in which case the pupae rattle if the cocoon is shaken),
because when the cocoon is opened, the caterpillars can be roasted and eaten.
Adamolekun (1993)
notes that, because of the high cost of conventional protein foods, protein
energy malnutrition is widespread in rural Nigeria. He further notes that consumption of the larvae of A. venata
is particularly common in southwestern Nigeria, that the nutritional value of
the larvae has been shown similar to that of chicken egg, and that mass-rearing
of the larvae as an alternative protein source has been advocated. He then reports:
However, A. venata
entomophagy may be implicated in the actiopathogenesis in southwest Nigeria of
an ataxic syndrome that occurs annually in the rainy season (July-September). The syndrome is
characterized by sudden onset of severe intention tremors and truncal and gait
ataxia after a (usually evening) meal.
Up to now the cause remained unknown.
The preceding meal consumption led to the suspicion that a food toxin
may be responsible, but no food item was common to all patients presenting with
the disease.
Dietary recall data are given on patients seen at the Ife State
Hospital with the ataxic syndrome. All
patients had consumed the roasted larvae of A. venata in their last
meals before onset, and market surveys indicated that the period of wide
availability of larvae coincided with the occurrence of the seasonal ataxia.
Adamolekun concluded:
This seasonal ataxia may occur in
poorly nourished subjects who are marginally thiamine-deficient because of a
monotonous diet of carbohydrates containing thiamine-binding cyanogenetic
glycosides, and who have a seasonal exacerbation of their thiamine deficiency
from thiaminases in seasonal foods. The
dietary recall in my patients supports this view. Thiaminases are present in many insects, and the invariable
finding of A. venata entomophagy in all patients with the seasonal
coincidence of the ataxic syndrome and the wide availability of the larvae in
the markets implicates the larvae. It
is ironic that poorly nourished people who desperately need protein
supplementation appear to be at greatest risk for developing this ataxic
syndrome.
Adamolekun (1993b) provides additional medical detail on the
syndrome. Akingbohungbe (pers.
comm. 1995) noted that it is very baffling that the larvae have been
used for ages, while the ataxia reported is a recent development.
Saturniidae (giant silkworm moths)
Cirina forda (Westwood), larva
Popularly known as
Kanni, the larva of C. forda is perhaps the most important and widely
marketed edible insect in Kwara State (Fasoranti and Ajiboye 1993). The
larvae are starved for a day or two to eliminate the gut contents, then boiled
for two hours, then sun-dried on mats.
Most tribes in Kwara State do not eat dried larvae of other insects, but
Kanni is an essential ingrdient in a vegetable soup, considered a delicacy,
which also includes onion, melon, tomatoes, pepper oil, and salt to taste. In the market, the dried larvae sold for
N19.50/kg (N1.00 = US 30 cents) compared with the 1986 price of N9.00/kg for
beef.
Odonata
Family uncertain
Barth (date?; vide Brygoo 1946;
vide Bodenheimer 1951: 193‑194) observed plates full of roasted
dragonflies, fara, in the market. These insects, which measure about 5
cm, form an important part of the food in times of famine, and, as quoted by
Bodenheimer from the earlier reports, "make a rather appetizing
meal."
Orthoptera
"Grasshoppers and
crickets are eaten though rather infrequently and largely by young
children" (Akingbohungbe 1988).
Acrididae (short‑horned grasshoppers)
Cyrtacanthacris aeruginosus unicolor (author?), adult
According to Fasoranti
and Ajiboye, these grasshoppers are roasted and consumed by all age
groups. Grasshoppers are plentiful only
periodically and were not observed being sold in the markets. Eno (1963) mentioned locusts
among the edible insects in Nigeria.
Gryllidae (crickets)
Brachytrupes membranaceus Drury
According to Akingbohungbe,
the cricket eaten by young folks who can take the trouble of digging it out
of its abode in the soil is Brachytrupes membranaceus Drury. The cricket
is termed Ire. Fasoranti and
Ajiboye note that these insects live in tunnels that are easily
detected. They turn a golden color when
roasted. Members of the Ire clan of the
Yoruba tribe do not eat crickets for reasons which the authors discuss.
Pyrgomorphidae
Zonocerus variegatus Linn.
"The variegated
grasshopper, Zonocerus variegatus Linn., which has a large dry season
population in southern Nigeria (i.e. from November to April) is reportedly
roasted and eaten in Akoko area of Ondo State" (Akingbohungbe 1988).
The grasshopper is termed Tata by the Yorubas. Fasoranti and Ajiboye mention that these grasshoppers are
prepared in a manner similar to that for crickets and are consumed by all age
groups of all tribes. They were not
observed being sold in the markets.
ALGERIA
Orthoptera