Chapter 28
Taxonomic Inventory (see
Regional Inventory, Chapter 27)
There
are many references to edible "grubs" in the Australian
literature. Most of these undoubtedly
refer to coleopterous larvae of the families Buprestidae or Cerambycidae or
lepidopterous larvae of the family Cossidae.
In cases where the family identity of the insect is not clear, the paper
is cited here in the Introduction.
Barrallier (1802: 755-757, 813; vide Flood 1980: 296) reported
that grubs and ants' eggs were eaten along the
These grubs are mainly woodborers in
acacia.
Meredith (1844:
94) reported that large grubs, "which are reckoned great luxuries,"
are eaten at
Davies (1846,
p. 414; vide Bodenheimer 1951, pp. 134-135) reported that the natives of
Brough
Smyth
(1878, I, pp. 206-207, 211-212) discusses several kinds of insects used
as food in
Dawson (1881,
pp. 20-21) mentions, in western Victoria, large numbers of pupae (from large
green processional caterpillars) which are dug from the ground during the
winter at the foot of gum trees and baked in hot ashes. Grubs cut from trees and dead timber, and
"about the size of the little finger," are eaten alive "with as
much pleasure as a white man eats a living oyster." When roasted on embers, "they are
delicate and nutty in flavour." Grubs
from the trunks of the common wattle tree (Acacia) are considered the
finest and sweetest. With the aid of an
axe and a small hooked wand, which is carried by every hunter, the grubs are
pulled from their holes in the wood.
Dawson states that when the women and children hear the sound of
chopping, "they hasten to partake of the food, which they enjoy above all
others." See also under Psyllidae.
Lumholtz (1889)
mentions several kinds of insects used as food by the aborigines in
Queensland. See below under
Cerambycidae, Apidae and Acrididae.
In
New South Wales "grubs" of all kinds are eaten as are ants and ant
larvae (Fraser 1892, pp. 52-53). Calvert
(1894 [or 1898?], pp. 17-29; vide Bodenheimer 1951, pp. 74-75) discusses
the lifestyle of the aborigines of Western Australia, noting that whereas
intelligent well-armed white people will die of hunger in the desert, the
native will find a sufficiency of food.
Four kinds of grubs and two kinds of manna are part of their fare. Grubs which are "extremely
palatable" are procured from the grass tree and also from the wattle
tree. They are eaten raw or roasted but
apparently are improved by cooking.
Calvert did not try them, but was told they have a nut-like flavor.
Stirling (1896;
vide Bodenheimer 1951, pp. 72-74) cites several earlier reports on insect foods
of Central Australia and adds additional information. He states:
"There are few living animals that come amiss to the Central
Australian aborigines. To mention the
names of all that are eaten would be largely to recapitulate the zoology of the
district." Lerp manna is mentioned
as being noted at various localities, particularly in the bed of the Todd River
near Alice Springs and at the junction of the Hugh and Finke rivers. The leaves of Eucalyptus rostrata and E.
microtheca bore the small white conical coverings of psyllid larvae. Witchetty grubs and other smaller larvae from
the roots of acacias are eaten. The
honeypots of the sugar ants are a favourite article of food when obtainable,
and there appears to be a special ceremony to promote the supply. Melophorus inflatus (the common yarumpa)
and M. cowleyi (the ittutunie) were eaten as was M. midas
probably.
Roth (1897,
p. 93) reported as follows on the insect foods of the Pitta-Pitta aborigines:
Certain species of ants--a green
variety among the Mitakoodi--are eaten raw:
the individual stands or stamps upon an ant-bed from which these
creatures will run up his legs and thighs, and get scraped or swept off as fast
as they come up. Smaller kinds of grubs
and caterpillars, especially those found on the grass (ka-pa-ra, both of
the Boulia and Cloncurry Districts) may be eaten raw and whole: the larger varieties, found in trees, (ka-lo-rung-or-o
of the Boulia) are usually roasted, the heads not being eaten, or may be dried
in the sun, and put away for future occasion.
[Sects. 53 and 84 (Fig. 84) of this work should be seen]
There
is a honey ant or yarumpa totem, yarumpa being the Arunta name
for the honey ant, Camponotus inflatus Lubbock. Spencer and Gillen (1899,
pp. 186-189) described the intichiuma or sacred ceremony of the yarumpa
totem and the religious significance of the intichiuma and totems in
general (pp. 167-170, 202-211). They
relate the tale of the "Wanderings of the Honey-Ant People" (pp.
438-439), and describe the intichiuma of the udnirringita or
witcheti (mispelled witchetty) grub totem (pp. 170-179).
Basedow (1904,
pp. 16-17) states that:
When the season is favorable, grubs
(`ilguare' and `iljaleti') and caterpillars (`udnamarre') are extensively
collected and devoured. The `ilguare'
lives on the roots of species of Acacia and Cassia, and it is
interesting to watch a native hunting for these. A long rod with a chisel edge at one end, and
often referred to as yamstick (`wanna') is forced into the ground at the side
of the main stem of the bush and leverage applied. If the root has been attacked by grubs it
will readily give way to the strain, and the native consequently sets to work
with his "wanna" and hands to unearth the grub. Less difficulty is experienced in finding the
`iljaleti' (larvae of Cossus sp.) which lives in the trunks of
eucalypts.
Basedow mentions that at the time of
their arrival in the ranges, the ground was covered with large green
caterpillars that were collected by the natives in large wooden vessels called
"mika" carried upon the heads of the women. Grubs and caterpillars are thrown upon hot
ashes to roast, but the latter are allowed to remain there for only a very
short time, being eaten almost raw.
Parker (1905,
pp. 110, 114; vide Bodenheimer, pp. 126, 130-131), in his report on the
Enahleyi tribe of northwestern N.S. Wales, states that ant larvae and frogs are
considered excellent food. Honey
collected from stingless bees is eaten mixed with wax and dead bees. Parker relates an Enahleyi legend that a
manna-rich year precedes severe drowth, a tradition that, according to
Bodenheimer, is widespread in Australian literature.
Thomas (1906,
pp. 110-112) states that insects are important articles of food in many parts
of Australia. Agrotis spina is
important in New South Wales where the adult moths are collected by lighting
fires under the huge rocks on which they collect. When the moths fall they are collected in
bushel-baskets; a fire is built to heat the ground and then the ashes are
pushed aside and the moths are winnowed on the hot ground. This removes the wings and
"down." They are then eaten or
pounded, or if to be kept longer than a week, they are smoked. They resemble a sweet nut in taste, but have
a bad effect for the first few days on those who eat them. Despite that, according to Thomas, both the
natives and their dogs grow fat on them.
Beetles, wasp larvae, March flies and caterpillars are all eaten on
occasion. Many kinds of beetle grubs are
eaten, and, as described earlier by Dawson (1881), a special instrument is
carried for pulling them out of the trees.
Ant pupae and larvae are also a favourite food. In Queensland ants and pupae are eaten
together, mixed with salt water. Honey
is much sought after and Thomas also mentions the sweet secretion of Psylla
which is sometimes eaten, sometimes infused in water and fermented as a drink.
Campbell
(1926, pp. 407-410; vide Bodenheimer, pp. 75, 103, 114) commented (p.
410):
Among the Australian aborigines the
variety of foodstuffs is considerable, not only from choice, but also owing to
the difficulty of obtaining a permanent and regular supply of any one article
of diet....In fact almost anything capable of being chewed is regarded as
food. During drought and the absence of
large game, the maintenance of an adequate food supply is one of the greatest
problems for these mere food-gatherers.
Thus it is not surprising that larger-bodied or abundant insects are
eagerly collected. Most insects appear
in a district for a comparatively short time each season, and the appearance of
species needed for food was treated by the natives as a matter of great
importance.
Other
insects mentioned by Campbell (Bodenheimer, pp. 75-76) include the migrating Bugong-moth
(Euxoa infusa) which was of great significance for some tribes in New
South Wales, while the larva causes damage to crops in some years. The 'sugar bags' of Trigona-bees, like
the green tree-ant (O. smaragdina), are largely restricted to the
tropical and subtropical areas of the North.
The honeypot ants, Melophorus, Camponotus spp. and others,
are eagerly sought for in Central and Northern Australia, while in Central and
Southern Australia, the caterpillars of large hepialid and cossid moths,
including the witchetty grubs are of great importance. Everywhere, the larvae of beetles such as the
longicorn, Eurynassa australis, are collected from living or decaying
trees, mainly Eucalyptus or Acacia. In addition to these, many other butterflies,
grasshoppers, termites, cockroaches, cicadas, lerp-insects, and numerous others
have been used as food by the Australian natives. See also under Formicidae.
Cleland (1940,
p. 14) notes that while civilized man has made remarkable and, in some cases,
lamentable, changes in his environment, there has been no serious depletion of
any plant or animal species because of its use as food by the natives. "They did, however, exercise some
control by extracting the large white witchetty or bardi grubs of certain
beetles and moths found in the stems and roots of a number of native trees and
shrubs." These destructive wood-infestng grubs were eaten by the natives.
Johnston (1943)
summarized aboriginal names and use of the fauna, including insects (pp.
301-307), in the Eyrean region. Many coleopterous larvae, especially
cerambycids and buprestids are eaten, but Johnston notes (p. 303), as noted at
the beginning of this chapter, that earlier references to larvae usually do not
distinguish between Coleoptera and Lepidoptera. He discusses both, therefore,
in a section titled Insect Larvae. Distinctions between grubs in the native
languages usually refer to the host tree or shrub and habitat within the host.
Concerning ants, Johnston cites Mrs. Duncan-Kemp (1933) that natives mixed ant
honey with diluted nectar from bauhinias and allowed the mixture to ferment
8-10 days to produce a semi-toxicant.
Also cited is an early (1846) report by Schürmann:
. . . large white grubs found sparingly in ant
hills about September along with the very numerous small red insects were eaten
by the Pangkala after having been sorted out by placing the mass (containing
earth and insects) on a large piece of bark (yuta) about 4 feet long and 8 to
10 inches wide. The material was thrown up repeatedly and caught in the yuta,
which was held in such a way that the heaviest portion became sorted out
towards one end, the lightest towards the other, and the grubs in the middle
part. These living grubs were then wrapped in a clean dry grass and chewed and
sucked until all nutriment was abstracted.
Duncan-Kemp is also cited by Johnston
regarding mantis being roasted on hot stones and eaten.
Finlayson (1943)
mentions (p. 30) that the roots of the broadleafed mulga or witchetty bush,
"harbour a grub beloved by the blacks," and that honey ants (pp.
85-86) are "relished exceedingly."
Frequently, a half a day's heavy digging will be done, following the
galleries to a depth of four feet in order to obtain 50-100 ants. The sweetness of the thin ant syrup,
according to Finlayson, "is relieved by a slight acidity and a flavour of
malt." Finlayson was very much
impressed by the generosity of the native people (pp. 91-93):
Correlated perhaps with their lack
of a property sense, but none the less admirable for that, is the blacks'
generosity and impartiality in matters of food distribution. All food obtained becomes the common property
of the group, and is brought in and distributed by the older men to all who
require it, regardless of any special claims which might be put forward (but
never are) by the man who obtained it.
Time and time again this generosity has been extended to white men in
extremis. In the matter of water,
the blacks' attitude has been almost quixotically generous, and in a country
where water is a vital thing, he has shared freely with the invader and his
ravenous stock...
McKeown (1944a,
p. 38; vide Bodenheimer 1951, p. 106) describes, similarly to previous
observers, the procedure used by native women in digging out the yarumpa
honey ants from great depths, sometimes six feet or more. McKeown (pp. 68, 69 [this may be McKeown
1944b rather than 1944a]; vide Bodenheimer, p. 99) mentions that great hordes
of the Bugong moths at times migrate to the coastal regions,
occasionally invading eastern urban areas.
McKeown (p. 177; vide Bodenheimer, p. 133) mentions termites as occasional
food. McKeown (1944b, pp.
182 and following; vide Bodenheimer, p. 103) discusses honey ants and notes
that Leptomyrmex varians Em. of Queensland stores its honey in a similar
manner. McKeown provides a drawing of Melophorus
inflatus (p. 183). McKeown (p. 106;
vide Bodenheimer, pp. 128-129) discusses lerp-sugar, the common sugar-lerp
insect being Spondyliaspis eucalypti Dob. (Psyllidae), which is
widespread in Australia. The sweet
"manna" is much prized by the natives who sometimes also concocted a
sweet drink by steeping them in water.
Mountford (1946)
recorded observations made along the Mann Range, the country of the
Pitjendadjara, in central Australia. He
states (p. 100):
The menu of my companions was
certainly varied; in fact, they ate everything that was edible--grubs, lizards,
ants, kangaroos, emus, grasses, and seeds of many kinds. I have eaten many of these foods with relish.
The large white wood grubs, although
loathsome in appearance, are particularly palatable, although I must admit it
took a lot of determination to eat the first one. They are, indeed, surprisingly similar to
roast pork. Lizard tastes like chicken,
and kangaroo like delicately flavored beef.
Honey ants are as sweet as any honey.
Mountford
confesses that he did not try all of the foods, dingo (native dog) and cat, for
example. Mountford provides a photograph
(p. 98) of a native baby, "fat and saucy," who "thrives on a
diet of mother's milk, white grubs, and honey ants." The author drives home the point that the child's
home is in the Mann Range "where previous travelers' reports indicated
that the country was too bad to support even aborigines."
Sweeney (1947)
reported on the foods of the Wailbri tribe, which formerly occupied the
extensive desert area lying to the northwest of Alice Springs in central
Australia. More than 80 percent of their
area is desert comprising spinifex and sandhill country with sparse and poor
desert timbers. Mulga, an acacia tree
edible for stock, growing in the low rainfall areas, belongs to the grass
country and does not grow to any extent in the spinifex. The mulga and grass country, which includes
the hill and creek areas and is the region of higher and more dependable
rainfall, represents about 10 percent of the Wailbri tribal territory. At the time of Sweeney's study, the remnant
of the Wailbri numbered about 600 natives, about half of whom had emigrated
north seeking easier food supplies. As
to tribal vitality, Sweeney notes that about 30 percent of the people are
children, including many healthy infants in arms.
As
to foods, honey from the native stingless bees is collected during the winter
months. The nests are built in the
hollows of trees, and the areas favored are those where eucalyptus grows, a
type of terrain to which the Wailbri have only limited access. Honey ants, called "Yurambi" by the
Wailbri, are found in mulga grass country and they feed mainly in the mulga
trees. The repletes are dug out of the
ground by the women. Because of their
restricted distribution, to gum creeks and flats and the mulga areas, honey
from both bees and ants is found only in small quantities. A number of trees produce growths around gall
insects, which are used as food, the most useful in Wailbri country being the
"bloodwood Apple" which grows to three inches in diameter. The gall insect itself is eaten, as is the
kernal or inside layers of growth around the insect. After the insect completes its life cycle and
leaves, the "apple" loses its food value.
Sweeney
describes an edible fly as follows:
In-djila-barinba is the
Wailbri term for a fly, whose body is about ½ inch long; when the wings are
closed the length is 3/4 inch. They
frequent the desert bloodwood trees, and make a singing noise with their wings. When they die they fall to the ground and
into the spinifex, and are collected by the natives and eaten without any
preparation or cooking. The flies are
also eaten by the desert goanas. The flies make a sweet substance which is
attached to the bloodwoods and which is also used as food.
Of
edible grubs, Sweeney says:
There are a number of grubs used as
food by the desert native. Edible grubs
are found in the eucalyptus genus of trees, but the most common is the
witchetty grub found in the roots of the witchetty bush (an acacia); they grow
up to 4 inches long and are eaten raw or cooked. The witchetty is a common bush growing in the
mulga and grass country; it also grows in the spinifex country edging the
mulga. Edible grubs are a common food
among the desert natives.
Bodenheimer (1951),
in addition to his review of previous literature on the use of insects in
Australia, devotes a section to insect totems, their intichiuma
ceremonies and legends. Quite a number
of totem animals are insects and the interested reader should consult
Bodenheimer (pp. 76-82). Bodenheimer
also devotes a section to the "honey-bags" or honeybees of Australia,
all of the native species belonging to the stingless genus Trigona
(Meliponidae) (pp. 115-128).
Bourne (1953,
pp. 62-63) mentions several insects used as food but provides little
information that has not been encountered in the previous literature. Insects mentioned include ant pupae as a
staple food, and white ants [termites] mixed with ground seeds and baked. Some types of moths are very popular and when
roasted taste like unpeeled almonds; natives in some parts of the country
periodically feast on moths that are attracted to the fires at night and are
thrown into the ashes before being consumed.
Many caterpillars are popular, particularly the green ones; they are
flung into the hot ashes until the body straightens and the hairs are singed
away. Most popular among the many forms
of larvae eaten are those of the big Cossus moth known as the Witchedy
grub. There are two species, one developing
in the roots of acacia, the other in the butt of eucalyptus trees. The flavor is said to resemble slightly
sweetened scrambled eggs. The honey of
wild bees is eaten with relish. Other
insects discussed include the honey ant, Melophorus inflatus, and lerp
manna found on leaves of the red gum (Eucalyptus rostrata) and secreted
by Psylla larvae. Bourne (p. 65)
mentions several food taboos; one is that expectant mothers in some tribes are
not allowed to eat grubs, among other things.
Bourne
(p. 59) provides a valuable discussion on the effect that the coming of the
white man has had on the nutrition (adverse) of the aborigines.
Bluett (1954: 5, 27-28; vide Flood 1980: 296-297) mentions, from indirect observation,
the use of witchetty grubs and Bogong moths in the Canberra district.
Reim (1962)
published an extensive paper on the use of insects as food in Australia [this
long paper in German is on hand, but not yet translated]. Much of the information is apparently gleaned
from the literature. Species mentioned
include: Coleoptera: Agrianome spinicollis (Cerambycidae), Appectrogastra
flavipilis, Bardistus cibarius Newman, Eurynassa odewahni
Pascoe, Mnemopulis edulis (Cerambycidae), Xyleutes boisduvali
Herrich-Schaeffer, X. eucalypti Scott, X. sp., Passalus
(?), Gyrinidae (?); Homoptera: Cicadina,
Psyllina, Spondyliaspis eucalypti Dobson; Hymenoptera: Camponotus spp., Formica consobrina,
Melophorus, Myrmecia pyriformis, M. sanguinea, Oecophylla
virescens Fabr., Trigona honey; Isoptera: termites; Lepidoptera: Abantiades marcidus, Coenotes
eremophilae (Sphingidae), Endoxyla eucalypti, E. sp., Trictena
argentata Herrich-Schaeffer, Zeuzera citurata.
Meggett (1962)
describes the physical environment occupied by the Walbiri in the
central-western part of the Northern Territory, and mentions (p. 4) that,
"In good seasons, when food is plentiful, the smaller and less palatable
creatures may be ignored; but in times of scarcity even the humblest insects
are eaten." Insects eaten include
(pp. 14-15): witchetty-grub, (Walbiri
name, mijamija) (Cerambycidae larvae?), prized food; witchetty-grub (nalgari)
(Cossidae larvae?), prized food; white ant (jarinju) (Eutermes sp.?),
occasionally eaten; flying ant (bandjidi) (Eutermes sp.?), occasionally
eaten; honey ant (jirambi) (Melophorus inflatus?), prized food; honey
ant (jagula) (Melophorus sp.?), prized food; manna (jiljalbu) (psyllid
lerp), frequently eaten; wild bee (munagi) (Trigona sp.), honey prized
food and wax used for adhesive; grasshoppers (djindilga), occasionally eaten;
caterpillars and grubs (ladjul), some eaten; cicadas and crickets (lirinba),
occasionally eaten; and weevils (lodu), occasionally eaten. Meggett additionally lists 13 types of
insects that are not eaten, including among others, Camponotus and Myremcia ants, Gryllotalpa (mole
crickets), March flies, mantids, hornets (known as murururururu), and
phasmids. Totems include insects (p.
59), and Meggett notes (p. 64) that a honey ant dreaming-site is located within
15-20 miles of the Yuendumu settlement.
In
an excellent summary of first-hand experiences, Tindale (1966)
emphasized the importance of insect foods in the life of the Australian
aborigines:
The earliest pursuit of children,
under the guidance of their mothers, is a hunt for various kinds of insect
larvae, witchety grubs, and beetles. It is probable that the healthy growth of
children in large measure is related to this source of food. Early nourishment
of babies prior to weaning is assisted and the children are kept quiet by the
cossid and hepialid grubs constantly dangling from their mouths. In our society
a dummy [pacifier] replaces this early natural food for children.
Tindale
notes that in drought years, a reduced supply of grubs, lerp scales, honey
ants, etc., along with the disappearance of greens may cause outbreaks of
scurvy, playing havoc with the health of adults as well as children. A serious
outbreak among the Kukatja (Loritja) people in 1930 was relieved dramatically
when the University of Adelaide Anthropological Expedition provided orange
juice for the crippled children and their parents, but Tindale notes: "On
that occasion Kukatja women complained bitterly of the disappearance of the
grubs from the roots of the Acacia kempeana shrubs because of the
drought, and of the impossibility of digging for the Honey Ant, which had taken
their diminished stores of honey far below the ground."
Even
the hunters remain alert for insect foods. Tindale writes:
I have seen a man, who supposedly
was engrossed in the stalking of a kangaroo, glance aside at a likely gum tree
and turn away from the hunt to test a hole with his spear-point. This led him
to make a hooked stick with which he pulled out a grub [Xyleutes]. He
ate it, and only then did his attention return to the more serious business of
the hunt.
Hiatt (1967-68)
listed a caterpillar, grubs and ant eggs (pupae?) (pp. 112, 119) among food
resources used by Tasmanian Aborigines.
Cleland (1966: 114) makes the following observation:
The rapidity with which, under conditions
of an ample food supply, the aborigines seemed to 'fill out' after a period of
stringency -- a phenomenon noticed on several of the expeditions from the
University of Adelaide -- would, if a fact, suggest that the Australian native
can perhaps assimilate and store up food, when the opportunities offer, more
quickly than white persons. This may
have an important bearing and enable aborigines in the interior to survive when
they might otherwise perish.
Cleland
inventories the wild food resources of the "Fertile Coastal Regions and
Murray System" versus the "Dry Interior." Insects eaten in the former region included
(p. 132): "bardie or witchetty
grubs such as Trictena argentata (Herrich-Schaetter) [sic] and Abantiades
marcidus Tindale, from the roots of gum trees and from other sources. Termites may have been eaten."
Insects
eaten in the Dry Interior include (pp. 143-144):
Witchetty grubs obtained from the
roots of the witchetty-bush, Acacia kempeana F.v.M. (larvae of buprestid
beetles); of the Native Poplar Codonocarpus cotinifolius (Desf.) F.v.M.
(larvae of a cossid moth); of the Roly-Poley Salso kali L. (larvae of a
large cossid moth), and of the Red Gum Eucalyptus, E. camaldulensis
Dehnh. and others (larvae of the Hepealid [sic] moth Trictena argenata
(Herrich-Schaeffer). Mulga apples
(galls) on Acacia brachystachya Benth. caused by probably Trachilogastir
sp. (Hymenoptera-Perilampidae). Edible
wax scale Austrotachardia acaciae (Frogg.) on Sandhill Mulga,
Ooldea. Bloodwoods Eucalyptus dichromophloia
F.v.M. and allies, in Central Australia have a large Brachyselid gall the size
of a small apple; its smooth-lined cavity contains a large female coccid,
probably Apiomorpha pomiformis Froggalt [sic], which is eaten raw. Termites in the flying stage. Specialized members of the Honey Ant Melophorus
inflatus Lubb. have honey stored in the crop to such an extent that the
hinder portion of the insect becomes enormously distended; by deep digging with
yam sticks the women unearth these much-relished sweets from the nests of the
ants in mulga thickets.
These mulga honeypot ants are quite
numerous in suitable country such as near Haast's Bluff, but the source from
which the honey is obtained is not at first sight readily detected. On some of the trees, the scale of the Lerp Austrotachardia
acaciae (Frogg.) Maskell, may furnish an obvious source for some of the
mulga sugar but these infestations are not sufficient. The principal supply seems to come from an
exudate from the gland at the base of each phyllode of the Mulga. Under certain conditions, in the early
morning, glistening beads of honey dew can be seen at this situation.
The native stingless bees of the
genus Trigona furnish a welcome source of slightly acid honey. When a bee's nest is suspected in a hollow
tree, a stick is poked down the hole until the comb, if present, is reached,
when some adheres to the stick. Comb,
honey, bees and larvae are all consumed together. In searching for a bee's nest at Macdonald
Downs in Central Australia, the natives, instead of looking up the trees for
issuing bees, went down on their knees in a likely locality and searched for
small dark particles carried away from their nests by the bees and
dropped. These having been found, it
meant that somewhere close at hand, there was a nest. Likely trees were tapped and any hollow ones
climbed and the stick poked down until the one containing the honey was found.
The
Ngatatjara distinguish between mirka (vegetable and non-fleshy foods)
and kuka (meat and fleshy foods), and kuka is always preferred
over mirka (Gould 1969: 260).
Insects are included under mirka and are important at times,
"particularly honey ants, white ants, and at least two varieties of grub
(neither of which was plentiful during 1966-1967, but which we were told had
been abundant in other seasons, perhaps even to the extent of constituting a
staple food).
Waterhouse (1971,
p. 146) states:
In the relatively harsh Australian
environment where woody fruits prevail, the nomadic hunting habits of the
aborigines and the fact that they had no thought or means of storing food
exposed them to irregular and sometimes prolonged periods of food
shortage. Possibly because insects were
at times almost the only available foodstuffs, but partly because some were
regarded as special delicacies, the use of insects as food was widespread if
not universal....A number are represented on totems, and sacred Increase
Ceremonies were performed to promote their abundance. Among the most prized were several species of
honeypot ants, the honey stores and brood combs of stingless bees, a number of
species of witchety grub, the bogong moth, the bardee (longicorn beetle larvae)
and the sweet manna of various lerp insects.
Even the green tree ant...was eaten or used to make a refreshing drink.
Waterhouse
relates that the large larvae (up to 8 or more cm in length) and pupae of the
witjuti or witchety are eaten raw or roasted, the flavor of the roasted grubs
reportedly being delicate and nutty, similar to scrambled eggs, roast pork, or
bone marrow. He notes, regarding the
aborigines and the bogong moth, Agrotis infusa (Boisduval) that,
"It is a tribute to their perseverance in the pursuit of food that it took
them several days of practice each year before they could hold down such a
fat-rich meal." The honeypots are
specialized workers of several species of Melophorus. These ants are steadily fed honey by
food-gathering workers; the honey is stored in the crop, the abdomen eventually
becoming distended to the size of a marble.
Strehlow (1971)
mentions, among the totemic songs and ceremonies of the Aranda, a termite totem
(p. 217), the Trjimeta Song of Lukara (witchetty grub) (pp. 282, 295-296), and
the Northern Aranda Honey-Ant Song of Ljaba (pp. 685-690), the latter 30 verses
in length.
Tindale (1972:
233, 238, 245, 248-249, 251-253) discusses insects as part of the food of the
Pitjandjara, a simple hunting and food-gathering people who live in the
northwestern corner of the state of South Australia. Their territory extends also westward barely
into West Australia and northward into the Northern Territory. Wattle tree roots yield mako ilkoara,
larvae of a species of Xyleutes moth (p. 233). Another gathered food is the anumara
hawk moth caterpillars which feed on Boerhavia
vines (p. 249). After the first
rains cause rapid growth of these (and other) plants, they are soon covered
with the small black anumara larvae (p. 238): "These grow in about a month to be
two-inch long caterpillars. Hundreds of
these are gathered into wooden dishes, covered with bark or confined until they
have passed all of the Boerhavia leafy matter through their bodies and
ejected it as frass. The women then
separate the larvae from their dung by rocking them in their wooden dishes and
cook the grubs by shaking them along with hot ashes, and so good food is
available once more." Collecting
small animals and insects is womens' work (pp. 245, 248).
Tindale
states (p. 251):
The plants of the family
Zygophyllaceae, besides their uses as coverings in the steaming of greens,
provide two genera, Nitraria and Zygophyllum, which have Cossid
moth larvae boring in their stems. These
grubs provide important foods. Thus,
Zygophyllum aurantiacum, sometimes called native hop, is known to the
Pitjandjara as pijarpiti. It is a
low shrub with slender, rigid stems and yellow flowers with four petals...The
grubs boring in the stems are called mako biarpiti at Ooldea and are the
larvae of a yellow and black spotted moth (Xyleutes biarpiti), the
female of which has only partly developed wings and so cannot fly. The larvae are abundant where they occur and
children spend many happy hours hunting for them...
Tindale
continues (p. 252):
Nitraria schoberi, the niter
bush, which lives on saline soils, also provides Xyleutes larvae, which
bore in the stems and are an important source of food. The shrubs occur near some of the larger dry
lake beds which margin the southern border of Pitjandjara territory. On certain nights in summer thousands of the
moths, white-winged with black spots, fly into fires, but as they generally
come at a time when better food is available, they are not always eaten. On the other hand, the grubs and pupae boring
in the base of the stem of the shrub earlier in the season are eagerly sought-after
items of food.
Tindale
states (p. 252):
Lerp scales occur on several species
of Acacia and Eucalyptus and provide a source of sugar as food
upon which all may need to feed. The wama
wanari, or lac scale of the mulga (Acacia aneura), is found
infesting large areas of mulga and then may be absent over equally wide
areas. Western Pitjandjara may live for
days on this substance, breaking off the twigs covered with scale and drawing
them through the lips sore and bleeding from the rough sticks drawn across
them. The lerp scale of the ngarukalja
(Hakea francisiana) yields a similar wama, which is of sufficient
importance that it is the subject of an increase ceremony (inma tjukur).
Tindale mentions the purara, or
honey ant (Melophorus inflatus) as an example of an insect clan totem.
According
to Tindale (pp. 252-253):
The term wamapiti is often
used as a term for any form of lerp sugar as well as honey. Honey ants occur only in mulga scrub. After big rains they harvest the flow of
honey from flowers and the sweet sap from glands on the growing tips of mulga
twigs. It is stored well below ground
level in the inflated abdomens of certain worker ants. These living stores of honey, each the size
of a pea, tide the ants over lean years during which lack of rain prevents the
flowering of the mulga. Thus honey ants are one of the buffer food supplies for
natives in dry years. Usually women dig
for honey ants using a digging stick and wooden scoop. Sometimes when other food is in short supply
men join in the search. Holes as deep as
3 or 4 feet may develop, often several yards in diameter, as they search for
storage holes and their living sacs of sweetness.
Finally,
Tindale notes (p. 253):
When all else fails the hairy
colonial larvae of the bag shelter moth (Panacela), which occur in
frass-filled silken webs on Eucalyptus, are gathered and eaten. Their irritating hairs are singed off by
heating them with hot ashes. The hairs
of the caterpillars cause intense irritation to the lips and throat and also
cause a skin rash. The Pitjandjara
concept of abject misery is to be under the necessity of eating such larvae.
Roheim (1974)
discusses myths, songs and totems involving honey ants (pp. 48, 133-137) and
witchetty grubs (pp. 132-133) and says of the latter (pp. 47-48):
One small representative of the
animal world belonged to the sphere of activity of women and children. This was the witchetty grub, the larva of the
big Cossus moth. It was regarded as a
great delicacy by the natives and eaten by most Europeans who had lived in the
bush for some time. The taste resembles
that of scrambled eggs, but is considerably richer. Children often spend the better part of the day
digging for these grubs. When Mrs.
Roheim offered little Aldinga some strawberry jam, he exclaimed, `Maku'
(witchetty), partly because the shape of the preserved strawberry reminded him
of the grub, but mainly because of his delight.
Roheim
continues:
The children ate the grubs raw, or
slightly roasted. Tjintjewara described
the manner of obtaining and preparing maku. When the children saw a particular kind of
bush, they examined its base to see if there were any of the shells which the
moth discards when it leaves the chrysalis.
If these shells were present, the children knew there were grubs in the
bush. They dug into the ground until
they found the root of the bush, where they saw the excrements of the maku. They then broke the thick root with their yam
sticks and inside it found the much coveted delicacy.
Relative
to the nomenclature of indigenous peoples, Meyer-Rochow (1975a)
suggests that "a species is likely to get an individual name to contrast
it with the more general term or to distinguish it from the term of a related
'type-specimen', if it is harmful, edible, or in any other way
outstanding." The author records
terms used for various terrestrial arthropods by three ethnic groups in Papua
New Guinea and by the Pintupi and Walbiri tribes of central Australia. Terms used by the Walbiri for edible species
are as follows: Coleoptera: Euryscaphus sp. (scarab beetle) (ni(e)di);
larval Cerambycidae (mijamija); larval Cuculionidae (lodu),
occasionally eaten; Homoptera: cicadas (lirinba),
occasionally eaten; scale insect (Coccoidea)(manda), some forms eaten;
manna (psyllid lerp)(jiljalbu); plant galls of a variety of families (pilburi),
some occasionally eaten; Hymenoptera: Camponotus
inflatus (honeypot ant)(ing(u)rani); Melophorus spp. (honey
ants)(jirambi, jagula); Trigona sp. (native honey bee)(djolala);
Lepidoptera: caterpillars (waiburi,
wai(o)upi, ladjul), some eaten; witchetty grub (larval Cossidae)(ngalgari);
Orthoptera: grasshoppers and locusts
(Acridoidea)(tindilga, djindilga), occasionally eaten; Teleogryllus
commodus (cricket)(djabalari), rarely eaten. Some of the above Walbiri terms were reported
by Meggitt (1962).
Pintupi
terms for edible insects are given by Meyer-Rochow as follows: Coleoptera:
nidi nidi or nirrinirri, general term for beetles, some
adults and grubs of which are eaten; Hemiptera:
leaf bugs of various families (patana), some of which are eaten;
Homoptera: leaf hopper (Cicadelloidea)(jugri
jugri), some eaten; Hymenoptera: Camponotus
inflatus (honeypot ant)(ngari); Isoptera: termites (longurlma,
lungkunpa); Orthoptera; grasshoppers and locusts (djindilga, tjintilyka),
occasionally eaten. Some of the above
Pintupi terms were reported by Hansen (1974).
Meyer-Rochow (1975b)
proposes that edible insects can help ease the food shortage in certain
underdeveloped countries. He suggests
that many of the proposed strategies for increasing food production are
impractical for developing countries:
Severe problems are attached to
strategies such as using more efficient insecticides, clearing virgin bush and
intensifying irrigation to obtain more arable land. There are also problems dealing with the
introduction of hitherto little-used or unknown foods like fish meal pastries,
algal bread, soy bean milk, and so forth.
The exploitation of so far untapped resources in the sea has a major drawback,
in that the catching and processing of midwater fish and squid (both of which,
admittedly, populate the oceans in billions of individuals) is a technically
difficult and very expensive venture which, to date, is uneconomical even for
the richest nations. Similar limitations
are found in suggestions which deal with the synthesis of artificial proteins
from coal and oil. While this is
possible in principle, and is already done in a few industrialized countries,
the process requires sophisticated technical know-how and financial backing
which most underdeveloped nations cannot hope to achieve in the next two
critical decades.
Today artificial proteins are not
much cheaper than the real thing, and if poor nations are meant to buy these
products from rich producer countries, the consequent imbalance of payments
would lead to an ever-increasing economical and financial dependence of the
poor on the rich nations -- even though the consumer countries might provide
the raw materials necessary to make the artificial foodstuffs.
Meyer-Rochow
mentions a number of well-known edible insects from around the world. He emphasizes that it is not his intention to
convert European people to insect foods, but he is convinced that
"entomophagy, direct or indirect, could ease the hazards of malnutrition
in countries where the consumption of insects by humans has only recently been
given up." He states:
There is no need to be ashamed of
eating insects. Indeed I can see no
sound reason why, in our society, oysters, crabs, or a Scottish haggis are
called delicacies, while beetles, pickled caterpillars or dried grasshoppers
are viewed with revulsion. For too long,
European habits have been regarded as a criterion for the degree of
'civilization' acquired by the indigenous people of many countries. Instead of preserving their own identity,
many so-called 'primitive people' have been led to believe that aping the
European way of life was the fastest way to be accepted by European society. While this might have been true in colonial
times, it no longer holds today.
Meyer-Rochow
continues:
Once entomophagy has been revived in
some countries (which would perhaps be easier than the introduction of new and
unknown food products, local enterprises could develop around an existing
market for edible insects. It should be
emphasized that insects need not be consumed directly, but could be given to
poultry or other domestic animals.
Certain fast growing insect species could be bred commercially, and
particularly palatable forms could be hand-collected or baited in the
field. Very often adults of seasonally
abundant crop pests are strongly attracted to light and can easily be caught
with traps at night. These and other
measures would help in ridding plantations of pest insects while at the same
time enabling valuable protein to be collected.
Such activities could even boost local food industries, as insects may
be sold preserved (for example, cooked and canned, dried or pickled), fresh or
in the form of 'insect meal.'
Meyer-Rochow
concludes:
Environmental scientists, of course,
would have to keep a watchful eye on any large scale exploitation of insects
outside of cultivation in insect farms.
But what will happen once insects are bred commercially under scientific
control and subjected to the attentions of food research specialists? Probably quite a lot: in the past 80 years the daily milk
production of a single cow has risen tenfold, chickens now lay an egg almost
daily instead of one per week, and pigs have been bred with additional ribs to
provide more grilling chops. For
insects, however, there is as yet no such success story, because until recently
food scientists with a European background have not even dreamed of insects as
human food. In their minds, insects existed
only as food destroyers and pests.
Proper research in insect farming, backed financially by international
organizations like FAO and the World Health Organization, might result in
similar advances to those in European animal husbandry mentioned above.
Meyer-Rochow (1976)
reiterates many of the points made in his 1975b paper regarding the potential
of entomophagy in helping to meet world food needs. He notes that the Australian aborigines
formerly ate a wide variety of insects and that central Australian tribes such
as the Walbri and Pintupi still do.
"Here insects represent a genuine food category -- their
consumption is by no means a mere emergency measure." He notes that the average weight of the
larval witchety grub is 1.2 g wet weight and 0.777 g dry weight and provides
the following data on proximate analysis (percentage with dry weight listed
first, then wet weight): protein 38%,
16.5%; carbohydrate 5.7%, 2.5%; fat 39.8%, 17.2%; fiber 16.2%, 7.1%; water (wet
wt. only) 56.7%.
Macfarlane (1978)
briefly describes the pattern of European intrusion into central Australia over
the past century. There is little in the
early records to indicate that aborigines were subject to malnutrition in the
early days of white settlement.
Aborigines ate essentially anything that was digestible by an
omnivore. Macfarlane mentions that
social organization, the sharing with other members of the group anything that
was caught, also tended to reduce malnutrition.
He cites earlier studies on types of foods used, noting that
caterpillars, ants and beetle larvae were background staple and that sugar from
honey ants and Hakea flowers were among the favorite foods. Macfarlane makes brief reference to the use
of insects by the Ngatjatjara at Kudjuntari, a group with minimal European
contact, on the southern fringes of the Rawlinson Ranges during November and
December, 1963. It was during a period
of long drought (several years).
European contact was limited to every three months when a truck from
Woomera came through to keep contact and distribute some flour, tea, sugar and
condensed sweetened milk for children (which was often consumed by
adults). As good supplies of kangaroos
were being obtained, there was not much pressure to dig for frogs or hunt for
grubs. Macfarlane states:
But cossid larvae from the mulga
were gathered by the women. The moth
larvae of Xyleutes biarpiti (mako witjuti) from Acacia kempeana
were collected more as snacks than as major dietary component. Similarly the honey ant, Melophorus inflatus,
was dug up twice in a week. Young women
dug briskly for these 1 cm diameter honey storage ants, which were enjoyed by
those who did the work, but there were not enough ants caught to provide one
for each member of the hoard [sic]....Several hands-full of caterpillars were
caught, cooked and eaten, but only by one family.
From this and other study sites,
Macfarlane concluded: "The overall
picture of these hunter/gatherer hordes, as they made contact with European
foods and culture, was that of well fed infants and adults. Traditional foods involved less hunting and
gathering as acculturation increased..."
Cutter (1978)
provides a breakdown of the current Aboriginal population as follows: 1) Urban (relatively assimilated), 2500
approximate population; 2) Urban (living in fringe areas), 1000; 3) Settlements
and missions, 5500; 4) Rural (cattle stations), 3000; 5) Rural (outstations),
2000. Cutter states (p. 63):
Most Aboriginal people are now quite
non-nomadic, living in conditions similar to those of traditional times, e.g.
humpies, wood fires, family groups. They
generally live on the outskirts of a white society and are very dependent upon
it. With the changes that have already
occurred in Aboriginal society, most people are now dependent upon a cash
economy for food clothing and transport.
The reasons why people moved from a
traditional, self-sufficient hunter/gatherer economy to a squatter society in
the first place are not clear. It
certainly was not in search of better health, material possessions or social
order. The major reasons were probably
related to accessibility of food and water and the pressures of authorities to
live in settlements. Since government
and mission authorities have accepted the outstation movement and at least
given it tacit support, people are moving back to traditional areas and thus
reinforcing traditional culture. The
greater income now available and good seasons have also encouraged this. However, despite this decentralisation trend,
most people even in these areas accept and want to maintain a cash economy and
'white' services.
Cutter
mentions witchetty grubs as a minor food, saying: "The men would be out hunting kangaroos
and hopefully bush turkeys or emu, and the women would be digging for rabbits and
witchetty grubs. Other bush foods such
as wild tomatoes, yams, goannas and honey ants would also be sought and
eaten." Cutter concludes: "Aboriginal people have already
demonstrated that they do not want to be assimilated into white culture but
they do want to integrate some of the features of white culture into their
own."
Meyer-Rochow (1978/1979)
reviews different uses to which insects are put by traditional societies and
proposes a classification of the uses.
The coverage of edible species largely repeats information in the
author's previous publications.
Bardon (1979)
gives a concise discussion of the "Dreamtime" (mentions ants and
grasshoppers among others) (p. 9) and discusses and reproduces paintings
produced by Aboriginal artists of the Papunya settlement in the Northern
Territory. Several tribal groups live
there although Papunya is not the traditional region for any of them. Bardon states (p. 7): "These tribal artists have inherited an
ancient knowledge which may not survive their own lifetimes. They pass it on to young men who wish to
learn from them, and happily there is a revival of interest, among the younger
people, in this traditional life..."
Honey ants (p. 40) and witchetty grubs (p. 64) are among the subjects
included in the paintings. T-shirts and postcards depicting honey ant dreaming
(each animal and plant has a "dreaming" - the story of its creation
and importance, where it is found and the correct time for the collection (Roff
1983)) are for sale in many tourist areas.
Gould (1980: 2; vide Oliver 1989: 160) reported that a Pitjantjara group in the
Western Desert distinguished 47 varieties of small game and other fleshy food,
including grubs. The women provided the
plant food, which made up about 80% (by weight) of the food supply throughout
most of the year, and another 10% by collecting small animals and animal
products. The men provided the meat,
which was valued highly but made up no more than 10% of the annual food supply.
James (1983)
provides a partial nutrient analysis on 63 species of indigenous foods,
including four insects (see under Formicidae and Cossidae below). The study was conducted primarily to
determine the value of bush foods in the survival of Defence forces, as well as
to obtain information of use to nutritionists concerned with Aboriginal health
and feeding habits and to those investigating new commercial food sources.
Hercus (1989),
citing earlier studies, states that distinctions made between grubs in
Aboriginal languages usually refer to the habitat (Johnson 1943):
Thus in the Wangkangurru language of
the Simpson Desert the green caterpillars that appear in large numbers after
rain and feed on the fresh grass are called wadnhamarra (Lower Southern
Aranda anhemare). Root grubs
(larvae of buprestid beetles and cossid moths) are called pardi, and
this word is also used as a general term for all caterpillars. The grubs from box-trees have the special
name pitha-kapurru (larvae of hepialid moths, Cleland 1966: 144).
The very large green caterpillars that live in foliage are called yatinjangu. In the mythology too these different types of
grubs all have their separate stories.
There is a major myth and song cycle about a big 'Grub-war.' Different groups of ancestral grub men coming
from the south, converge and have a battle on the grassy plains near New Crown
in the extreme south of the Northern Territory.
Hercus
continues:
Everyone was happy to eat the grubs
from the roots and trees, but it seems that the grass grubs were dried and
stored. This was not only a matter of
food storage: these grubs were not
considered edible except in powder form.
The preparation of the grubs was an elaborate process which was still
carried out by Wangkangurru and Yarluyandi people living according to a semi-traditional
life-style in the 1930s at Pandie Pandie and at Andrewilla south of Birdsville.
Hercus
provides a translation from Wangkangurru on the preparation of grass witchetty
grubs. It was done entirely by old
women. Typically there is magic associated
with hunting, but not usually with food-gathering, but preparation of the grass
witchetty grubs was an exception to the general rule. There was magic and secrecy connected with
it.
Irvine (1989)
reports efforts to market insects as food in Australia, focusing on Vic
Cherikoff, generally recognized as Australia's foremost authority, and his
company, Bush Tucker Supplies, in Sydney. Cherikoff considers that the insects
with the best commercial potential could be witchetty grubs (Xyleutes
leuchomochla), bardis (Bardistus cibarius) and similar grubs, honey
ants (Melophorus bagoti) and sugarbag (Trigona bees). While
Cherikoff feels that more research is needed before insect foods can be
commercialized on a large scale, he has developed a network of suppliers all
over the country who send him their local delicacies, like the farmer near
Lismore in NSW who digs longicorn beetles, tasting like scrambled eggs, from
rotting trees. Cherikoff conducts insect food tastings and dinners, tours and
courses, and claims an 80% to 90% acceptance rate for the bush foods offered.
He notes that there is already a huge demand, including for export, and that he
has had to decline orders of thousands of kilograms from Japan solely due to
lack of supplies. Irvine mentions Rountrees on Sydney's North Shore and seven
other restaurants among a growing list in Australia that offer insect foods.
Irvine
mentions nutritional studies conducted by Cherikoff and university
nutritionists. Bogong moths (Agrotis infusa) contain 20% protein, 50%
fat (dry weight basis), energy content of nearly 2000 kilojoules, and are
particularly high in zinc. Bardi grubs are a very good protein source. When fed
to fish, 1.8 kg of bardis convert to 1.0 kg of fish.
Low (1989)
discusses bush foods, including several insects (pp. 189, 201-203):
Insects were very important foods to
Aborigines. (White Australians often infer from this that the Aboriginal diet
was meagre and that Aborigines lived poorly. In fact, insects are very tasty
and nutritious, and it is more to be wondered that European cultures make so
little use of them. I have eaten a variety of moths, grasshoppers, grubs, ants
and the like, and find them excellent foods.)
Low's discussion of several species is
included, in part, under the proper taxonomic categories below.
Cherry (1991)
discusses insects as part of Aborigine cultural beliefs and their use as food
and medicine. Various papers are cited for information on the Bogong moth (Agrotis
infusa), the true witchety grub (Xyleutes leuchomochla), honeypot
ants (Melophorus bagoti and Camponotus spp.) and honeybag (Trigona
spp.). Cherry notes that the Aborigine population, estimated at more than
300,000 before 1770, is now down to about 160,000 and that about two-thirds of
them now live in cities and have adopted suburban lifestyles.
Ron
Scherer (The Christian Science Monitor, August 8, 1991)
comments as follows:
The concept of native foods
[including witchetty grubs] is increasingly appealing to hotels and restaurants
frequented by tourists. . . One Australian chain, the Country Comfort Inn, has
decided to make 'bush tucker,' or native foods, a signature of its restaurants,
which are part of its 19 motels. Bush food has also taken to the air on
Australian Airlines, and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation has been
educating the public about bush foods with its series, 'The Bush Tucker Man.'
Book stores are well-stocked with books on bush tucker.
Scherer
mentions Rountrees, its Chef Bruneteau and his witchetty grub soup:
Bruneteau buys the witchetty grubs
frozen. They are roughly the size of a man's index finger. They are pureed and
mixed with a broth to make a meaty-tasting soup. Aborigines eat the grubs whole
and uncooked. 'They have a nice, nutty flavor when roasted,' says Bruneteau,
who adds they are much better than the snails favored by his French ancestors.
He estimates he uses about 12,000 grubs per year including a considerable
number in the soup which he cans and sells.
Pfeiff
and Hutchison (The Globe and Mail [Canada], November 10, 1993)
state that there is an explosion of interest in bush tucker, and Australia's
book stores now offer a wide selection of cookbooks with recipes for such
dishes as Bogong moth in cream sauce, and black nightshade flan. "Tucker
trips" are some of the most popular expeditions for both domestic and
overseas tourists throughout the tropical north and in the Outback around Alice
Springs where such bush foods as witchetty grubs can be sampled. The authors
note that Vic Cherikoff supplies more than 40 restaurants across Australia with
their bush tucker.
Coleoptera
Buprestidae (metallic woodborers)
See Tindale 1953 under Lepidoptera:
Cossidae.
Cerambycidae (long-horned beetles)
Agrianome spinicollis (author?)
Appectrogastra flavipilis (author?)
Bardistus cibarius
(Newman), larva
Endoxyla eucalypti
(author?)
Endoxyla sp.,
larva
Eurynassa odewahni Pascoe
(= australis), larva
Mnemopulis edulis
(author?)
One
of the earliest reports of the famous Bardistus grub appears to be that
of Cowan (1865, pp. 70-71):
The trunk of the grass tree . . . (Xanthorea
arborea), when beginning to decay, furnishes large quantities of
marrow-like grubs [Bardistus cibarius], which are considered a delicacy
by the aborigines of Western Australia.
They have a fragrant, aromatic flavor, and form a favorite food among
the natives, either raw or roasted. They
call them Bardi. They are also
found in the wattle-tree, or mimosa. The presence of these grubs in the Xanthorea
is thus ascertained: if the top of one of these trees is observed to be dead,
and it contains any bardi, a few sharp kicks given to it with the foot will
cause it to crack and shake, when it is pushed over and the grubs taken out, by
breaking the tree to pieces with a hammer.
The bardi of the Xanthorea are small, and found together in great
numbers; those of the wattle are cream-colored, as long and thick as a man's
finger, and are found singly.
Lumholtz (1889)
mentions several kinds of beetle grubs which occur in decaying tree trunks in
Queensland, one of which, Eurynassa australis (Cerambycidae), is shown
in a figure (pp. 153-155). The best of
these, according to Lumholtz, occurs in acacia trees, is glittering white and
the thickness of a finger. Lumholtz
states that the aborigine does not ordinarily eat raw animal food and that
these beetle larvae were the only exception known to him. While some were eaten alive during the
collecting, most were carried in baskets back to the camp. Preparation consisted of placing them on
red-hot ashes where they immediately became brown and crisp and ready to be
eaten. Lumholtz wrote: "Strange to say, these larvae were the
best food the natives were able to offer me, and the only kind which I really
enjoyed...In taste it resembles an egg, but it seemed to me that the best kind,
namely the acacia larva, which has the flavour of nuts, tasted even better than
a European omelette." The natives
also ate with relish the adult beetles which they roasted after first removing
the wings. Adults of several others of
the larger wood-borer beetles were also fondly eaten.
Of
the "bardee," Bardistus cibarius Newm., which ranges from
Western Australia to New South Wales, Tillyard (1926) states (pp.
233-234) that, "its larvae are found in the stems of grass-trees and
'black-boys' (Xanthorrhoea) and are eaten both by aborigines and white
people."
See
also in the Introduction: Brough Smyth
(1878, I), Campbell (1926), Cleland (1940), Irvine (1989), Johnston (1943),
Meggett (1962), Meyer-Rochow (1975a), Reim (1962) and Waterhouse (1971). Some other mentions of "grubs" may
also pertain to this family.
Curculionidae (snout beetles, weevils)
See
Meyer-Rochow (1975a) in the Introduction.
Scarabaeidae (scarab beetles)
Anophlognathus viridiaenneus (Hope),
larva
Euryscaphus sp., adult
Hope (1842,
p. 132) provides evidence that the white grubs of Anophlognathus
viridiaenneus, the adults of which are golden-colored, are the larvae eaten
by the New Hollanders and in some other parts of Australia. Hope states there can be little doubt that
the white grubs of other species are often mistaken for them and also
eaten. He opines:
Should this opinion be further
substantiated, and the food prove palatable and wholesome, the settler, from
policy, should patronize as food these dainties which are so highly prized by
the wild Australian, and thereby secure the crops of future years by feeding on
the insects capable of destroying them; and certainly no reason can be adduced
why the grubs of New Holland may not rival in delicacy the palm-worm of the
Eastern World, or the cossus of Europe, which the Roman epicure, in the days of
Pliny, so highly esteemed.
See
also Meyer-Rochow (1975a) in the Introduction.
Diptera
Bibionidae (March flies)
See
Thomas (1906) and Sweeney (1947) in the Introduction.
Cicadellidae (leaf hoppers)
See
Meyer-Rochow (1975a) in the Introduction.
Cicadidae (cicadas)
Cicadina
See
Calvert (1894), Meggett (1962) and Reim (1962) in the Introduction, and Brough
Smyth (1878, I) and Dawson (1881) under Psyllidae.
Coccoidea (scale insects)
Apiomorpha pomiformis
Froggatt, gall
Austrochardia acaciae
(Frogg.), lerp sugar
In
desert areas, a shiny red lerp (Austrochardia acaciae) found on mulga
trees was important to inland tribes (Low 1989: 189). See also Cleland (1966) and Meyer-Rochow
(1975a) in the Introduction.
Psyllidae (psyllids)
Eucalyptolyma sp.,
lerp sugar
Spondyliaspis (= Psylla)
eucalypti Dobson
Psylla
Psyllina
One
of the earliest reports of lerp manna appears to be that of Dobson
(1851, p. 235; vide Bodenheimer, pp. 72-73, 129-130); the insect was
identified as Psylla eucalypti which was sometimes observed in great
numbers on the leaves of Eucalyptus rostrata and E. microtheca. The white conical scales, about 2 mm high by
4 mm in diameter, are secreted by the larvae and were much prized by the
natives for their sweetness. When
abundant, they were collected in great quantities, entire trees being cut down
to obtain them.
Fluckinger and Watts
(1875; vide Bodenheimer, p. 73) analyzed the lerp manna of Eucalyptus
dumosa and found it to contain a starch-like substance, the lerp-amylum,
and a sugar.
Brough
Smyth
(1878, I) discusses three sources of sweets that were available prior to
the arrival of the Europeans, one of which was manna, and he distinguishes two
kinds of manna. He states: "Little is generally known of the manna
of Australia. It was, however, at one
time an important article of food; and in the western part of Victoria the
natives gather it in pretty large quantities still." In the months of December to March, the
Aborigines of the Mallee country gather and eat Larap, Larp, or Lerp,
a kind of manna of which Brough Smyth says, "It is a nutritious food, and
is eaten with various kinds of animal food." This lerp, according to Brough Smyth,
is the sugar from Psylla eucalypti reported earlier by Dobson, but is
very different from the manna gathered from the large Eucalyptus viminalis
and which is produced by a species of cicada.
The latter is amorphous while the former is of a crystalline and
shell-like structure.
Dawson (1881)
mentions two kinds of buumbuul (manna) used in western Victoria. One, which resembles small pieces of loaf
sugar "with a fine delicate flavour" drops from the leaves and twigs
of certain kinds of gum trees. It is gathered
and eaten by the children, or mixed with acacia gum dissolved in hot water as a
drink. The other type of buumbuul
is deposited in large quantities by a large dark-colored cicada on the stems of
white gum trees. It is a liquid
resembling honey and occurs in waxen cells which are collected by ascending the
trees and scraping the cells from the bark.
It is mixed with gum dissolved in cold water and used as a drink. Dawson relates that the natives complained
that because of the increase in opossums resulting from destruction of the wild
dogs, "they never get any buumbuul now, as the opossums eat it
all."
Basedow (1925,
p. 147) mentions lerp manna, secreted by larvae of Psylla, on leaves of
red gums (Eucalyptus rostrata) growing along river-beds in central
Australia. The manna is referred to as prelja
by the Arunndta, and large quantities are collected and eaten.
Low (1989)
mentions, in promoting bush foods, that one variety of lerp, Eucalyptolyma
sp., can be found on eucalypt trees especially in the cities, where the trees
are stressed. These lerps are white and waxy and have a sweet crumbly taste.
See
also in the Introduction: Bourne (1953),
Calvert (1894), McKeown (1944b), Meyer-Rochow (1975a), Parker (1905), Reim
(1962), Stirling (1896), Thomas (1906), Tindale (1972), and Waterhouse (1971).
Hymenoptera
Apidae (honey bees)
Trigona spp.,
larvae, pupae
Braim (1846,
II, p. 248) remarks on the flavor of the honey of a small stingless bee in New
South Wales and indicates that the bee brood is also eaten: "The honey is of delicious flavour,
after it has been carefully separated from the comb, the cells of which are
generally filled with small flies. The
natives, however, devour it just as they find it, and are very fond even of the
refuse comb, with which they make their favourite beverage called Bull, and of
this they drink till they become quite intoxicated." The hives are "generally found at the
summit of remarkably high trees," and it is the women who are sent up to
collect them while the men stand below. Braim describes how "she reaches
the dizzy height to which she is directed from below, exhibiting throughout the
most astonishing stretch and pliancy of limb, and the most wonderful absence of
all fear of danger."
Honey
is highly prized and eaten in large quantities by the natives of Queensland,
but Lumholtz (1889) states (p. 142) that "they refuse the
larvae, however hungry they may be."
Spencer (1928,
II) states (pp. 547-548) that in the Powell Creek region one of the
choicest foods here as everywhere is the "honey-bag" of the native
bee which nests in the hollow limbs of gums, lance-woods and other trees. Ingenious methods of finding and collecting
the nests, as well as collecting opossums are described. The bee nests are found by one of three
methods, the simplest of which is to happen across a tree where the bees can be
seen flying in and out of the nest.
Another is to catch a bee, fasten a bit of white fluff to it so that it
can be better seen and followed to the nest.
The third is to place the ear next to a likely-looking gum tree, and if
a nest is present, the hum of the bees can be heard. Once located, the "honey-bag" is
chopped out. Spencer describes it as
follows:
The comb is quite irregular in
shape, varying, of course, in different hives.
The cells are like little round balls much like, only smaller than,
those of the English bumblebee, the largest about a quarter of an inch in
diameter, some of them containing honey and some pollen and nectar, not yet
made into honey. A third kind is much
smaller and contains the eggs, larvae and pupae. The whole mass is scooped into a piece of
bark. Hundreds of bees get mixed up with
the pollen and honey, but the natives do not mind this and eat the whole of it
with relish. So far as the honey itself
is concerned it is excellent.
Irvine (1957,
p. 125) states, without citation, that bee brood is commonly eaten in the comb by the aborigines of Australia, and Low
(1989) mentions "bee bread" (meaning bee brood?). According to
Low, honey of the stingless Trigona bees was the "supreme
delicacy" for many tribes.
See
also in the Introduction: Bodenheimer (1951), Bourne (1953), Brough Smyth
(1878, I), Campbell (1926), Cherry (1991), Cleland (1966), Irvine (1989),
Meggett (1962), Meyer-Rochow (1975a), Parker (1905), Reim (1962), Sweeney
(1947), Thomas (1906) and Waterhouse (1971).
Formicidae (ants)
Camponotus (= Formica) consobrinus
(author?), pupa
Camponotus (= Melophorus)
inflatus (Lubb.), honey-pot
Colobopsis gasseri
(author?), pupa (a synonym of Camponotus gasseri?)
Melophorus bagoti Lubb.,
honey-pot
Melophorus cowleyi Frogg.,
honey-pot
Melophorus midas
(author?), honey-pot
Melophorus spp.,
honey-pots
Myrmecia pyriformis
(author?), pupa
Myrmecia sanguinea
(author?), pupa
Oecophylla smaragdina (Fabr.)
Oecophylla virescens
(author?)
Lhotsky (1835: 106; vide Flood 1980: 296) reported ants are eaten at Monaro.
The
natives of Victoria are very fond of a mixture of ant pupae and powdered dry
bark of the "stringybark" tree, "the taste being something like
that of a mixture of butter and sugar."
Regarding harvest of the ant pupae, Brough Smyth (1878, I)
says:
Mr. Wilhelmi mentions the trough of
bark used by the blacks of South Australia for holding the pupae of the
ants. The trough is called Yuta;
it is about four feet in length and eight inches in breadth. The natives open the ant-hills and the pupae
are placed in this trough, which is shaken and so manipulated as to retain the
pupae and to throw off the dirt and refuse.
The season of the ants is in September and October, and during these
months the yuta is always seen in the hands of the natives.
Pupae consumed include those of the
common ant, Formica consobrina, which are about the size of rice grains,
and those of the black and red bull-dog ants, Myrmicia pyriformis and M.
sanguinea, about three-quarters of an inch in length.
Froggatt (1896)
describes two new species of honey ants, Camponotus cowlei and C.
midas. He also quotes correspondence
from Professor Spencer as follows:
The black honey ant (Camponotus
inflatus, Lub.) is called "Yarumpa" by the natives, by whom it is
esteemed a great luxury; it is, par excellence, the honey ant of the
central country, and ranges across to the Murchison in Western Australia. We found them plentiful in certain districts
on the hard sandy plains, and also often very abundant in patches among the
Mulga scrub. The ground all round Ayers
Rock, to the south of Lake Amadeus, was strewn with heaps of sand where the
natives had been digging them out. They
construct no mound over their nests; the entrance, which is an inch in length
by a quarter of an inch in width, leads down into a vertical shaft or burrow
from five to six feet in depth. About a
foot below the surface horizontal passages about a foot in length lead off from
the main shaft, at the end of which were three or four of the honey ants, while
the bottom of the main shaft, which is excavated into a larger cavity,
contained a considerable number. The
'honey ants' are quite incapable of movement and must be fed by the
workers. Unlike all the other ants
noticed in this country, these did not appear to collect twigs, leaves or grass
to carry into their burrows.
The red honey ant, C. cowlei, is
called "Ittootoonee" by the natives and is apparently a much rarer
species as Spencer observed only one small colony.
Saville-Kent (1897,
p. 253; vide Bodenheimer, p. 114) reported the following of the green tree-ant,
Oecophylla: "Mashed up in
water, after the manner of lemon squash, these green tree-ants form a pleasant
acid drink which is held in high favour by the natives of N. Queensland and is
even appreciated by many European palates." A liquid made from the ants and their larvae
is also commonly used as a remedy for a variety of ills, such as stomach
troubles, headaches, coughs, etc.
In
central Australia, honey ants are found in parts of the scrub and are "a
very favourite food" (Spencer and Gillen 1899, pp.
26-27). In some areas, acre after acre
of the hard sandy soil has been dug out in the search for these insects.
Basedow (1904)
discusses honey ants as follows:
A 'native sweet' which is eagerly
sought both by young and old is the honey-ant (Melophorus inflatus) or
'winudtharra' of the blacks. These
curious creatures, nocturnal in habit, live associatedly in colonies below the
surface of the ground, usually in thickets of mulga and at the base of one of
these trees. The native, on finding the
exit from the ants' nest, traces the narrow channel downwards by working with
his hand and stick to a depth of often many feet, at which the colony
resides. The 'honey-ant,' which it has
been ascertained is one of the workers specially modified, stores honey within
itself at the expense of the gatherings of the remaining ants, to an amount
disproportionately large when compared with its own size. To permit of this the abdominal portion of
the ant swells, according to the intake of honey, until it assumes a globular
form having a diameter of a centimetre or more...The natives are passionately
fond of these little luxuries of the bush and spend hours collecting the
same...To the palate the first sensation is that of a distinct taste of formic
acid, which no doubt is excreted by the ant as a natural protection. This taste is, however, slight and momentary,
and upon bursting the membrane a recognition of the taste of rich honey
follows.
Noetling (1910:
290-291) identified three species of ants used as food in Tasmania, i.e., Myrmecia
pyriformis, Colobopsis gasseri and Camponotus consobrinus,
and comments: "The number of ants
distinguished [by the natives] is remarkably large, but we find that the native
words are all combinations of the word `tietta' or `teita' with
another word. Considering that the eggs
[pupae] of these insects were delicacies, it is hardly surprising that they
distinguished such a large number."
In
discussing the native foods in northwestern South Australia, White (1915,
pp. 728-729) states: "Sugar ants (Melophorus
inflatus), called by these natives 'woma,' are much relished. They dig large pits up to 4 ft. or 5 ft. deep
in search of the ants; grasping them by the forepart of the body they bite off
the inflated abdomen, which contains the sweet fluid."
In
central Australia, throughout the MacDonnell Range, and the country to the north
and southwest and in the Musgrave Range district, honey ants (Melophorus
inflatus (Beecher)) are eagerly sought after by the local tribes (Basedow
1925, pp. 146-47). These insects
live underground, usually in the red sandy loams carrying forests of mulga. When the entrance to a nest has been
discovered, a thin stick is inserted as a guide for the digging. It is tedious, done by women who not
infrequently must dig to depths greater than their height. The honey ant is a modified worker of the
colony who is so overfed that the abdomen swells to the size of a marble, about
three-eights of an inch in diameter. The
abdominal walls are so stretched as to become an extremely fine membrane
through which the honey can be clearly seen.
The ants are of course unable to move in this condition and serve as
living tanks that can be tapped by other ants as required. To eat the honey the ant is grasped by the
head, the swollen abdomen placed between the lips which then squeeze the
contents into the mouth. The first
sensation is of formic acid due probably to a secretion produced by the ant in
self-defense, but the honey is pure and delicious. According to Basedow, the honey ant is called
winudtharra by the Aluridja and Wongapitcha, and yerumba by the
Arunndta.
Tillyard (1926,
p. 290) distinguishes the honey-pot ants as Camponotus inflatus Lubb.
(the black honeyant of "Yarumpa"), Melophorus cowleyi Frogg.
(the golden-yellow honey-ant or "Ittootoonee") and M. bagoti
Lubb. (the red honeyant). The replete
workers of the first two species measure 17 mm in length and the gaster is
enormously distended. The aborigines
esteem the ants a great luxury and dig out their nests in search of the
honey-pots. Both genera belong to the
Formicinae or Camponotinae.
Campbell (1926,
pp. 408-409) mentions that ants are a common food in Australia, and in the arid
areas of Central Australia, the 'sugar-ants' Melophorus inflatus and M.
cowlei are collected and eaten. In
Northern Australia, the adults and larvae of the green tree-ant, Oecophylla
smaragdina, are eaten. In the
Cooktown district, the nests are opened on a smooth surface to allow the adults
to scatter, leaving the larvae, which are collected and formed into a ball by
rolling them in the palms of the hands before swallowing them. Sometimes several of the balls were rolled
into one big ball, which was usually washed in water before being eaten, after
which the water was used as a drink.
Other species of ants and ant-maggots were eaten by the natives of New
South Wales.
Spencer (1928,
I, pp. 172-175, 206) described the collection of honey ants (Melophorus
inflatus) between Ayers Rock and Mt. Olga, a country dominated by wiry
shrubs of Cassia and belts of Mulga.
Spencer states:
The Arunta people call it Yarumpa
and are very fond of it. In this
miserable part of the country it is one of their chief delicacies. In some places the whole surface of the
ground was turned over, just as if a small army of prospectors had been at
work. There is nothing on the surface to
indicate the existence of a burrow, except a small opening straight down. The natives soon found one or two and
immediately set to work to dig them out.
It was astonishing to watch the speed with which the elder women
worked. First of all, the ground round the
opening was loosened with the aid of a digging-stick, held in the right hand,
and, alternately loosening the soil with her stick and then throwing it out
over her shoulder, the lubra soon dug a hole just big enough to hold her body. The main burrow went down for between five
and six feet, with horizontal passages going off all around it. A few of the honey ants were found in each of
these, but the greater number were in a swollen chamber at the bottom.
In the nests dug out here, there were
only two kinds of ants, the ordinary worker and the honey ants. Spencer notes that when the ants want to eat
honey, they tap the sides of the honey-bag with their feet, and in response to
this stimulus the honey is passed out in drops from the mouth. Melophorus cowlei (native name,
Itutuni) and a "new species" of honey ant are mentioned briefly, but
in neither of these is the abdomen so distended and specialized as in M.
inflatus which Spencer calls "par excellence the honey ant of
the arid parts of Australia." In
addition to the honey ants, grubs, wild bee honey, flies and pounded ant-hill
clay are mentioned among the insect food used (p. 206). Spencer (1928, II, Fig. 282, opposite p. 458)
illustrates the ceremony of an ant totem belonging to the Kingilli moiety of
the Warramunga tribe.
Croll (1937,
p. 16) briefly discusses honey storage by Camponotus inflatus, called
yarumpa by the Arunta who gather it whenever they can.
Terry (1941;
vide Conway 1990) discusses the honey ant, Camponotus inflatus, the
Aranda name for which is "Yerrampe."
Badger
and
Korytnyk (1956) examined the carbohydrate constituents of the
honey-ant, Melophorus inflatus, collected about 190 miles northwest of
Alice Springs in central Australia. The
fructose:glucose ratio was found to be 0.67:1.0. In bee honey, fructose usually predominates,
the ratio averaging 1.20:1.0, although, according to the investigators, the
range varies widely depending on the source of the honey. The authors note that Mexican honey-ants were
found by Wetherill to produce almost pure fructose, but they consider the
evidence presented as inconclusive.
Tindale (1966)
describes an acid-tasting drink made from crushed ants (eggs, larvae and adults
of O. smaragdina). Of Melophorus inflatus, called jeramba
by the Aranda, Tindale says:
These helpless living storehouses of
food assist in tiding the ants over the lean years when there is no flowering
of the mulga [Acacia aneura]. Aborigines say that after two dry years
there is no honey to be gathered by digging out the nests. In normal times a
rich supply of food may reward an afternoon's effort by a group of women. They may leave behind them a hole 6 feet
across and several feet deep as witness to the gathering of half a pound of
honey in its multitude of pea-sized spherical packages.
Hart (1974,
pp. 3-7) describes a Saturday honey-ant (tjala) dig with a group of
aborigines as part of a discussion on the inadequacy of present-day education
in maintaining the integrity of Aboriginal society. The following extracts provide some insight:
The group of two men, five women and
ten children took me several miles to a flat plain on the Fregon road studded
with Mulga trees. Here the red sandy
loam was easier to dig, and the mulga blossoms provided the honey which the
ants stored.
They looked for the black ants on
the ground, followed them to their almost invisible holes and then the women
dug down with wana, the sharp digging sticks, scooping the earth out
with the piti, the carrying dishes.
The children watched every move intently as the women dug deep down, the
perspiration streaming from their foreheads.
Presently the digging in one hole
stopped, the woman reached for the carrying dish, shook out the dust, and the
children leaned dangerously forward over the six-foot deep pit. The mother loosened a couple of clods of
earth and pulled out a handful of the strange looking ants, showing their
transparent abdomens extended with golden honey to the size of small marbles. She straightened up, passed the carrying dish
up to the oldest child and watched as the five-year-old boy put the ball into
his mouth, sucked out the honey and threw the ant away. He passed the dish on to the next child and
they shared the honey-ants around.
There was no grabbing or struggling
amongst the children. They sat
contentedly waiting, knowing that the honey-ants would be shared out and that
they would get their part of the mother's find.
She did not eat many herself, but found satisfaction in watching the
children suck the honey from the ants and brush the flies from their sticky
mouths. She laughed at my efforts to
cope with the ants that the children gave me, instructing me not to bite the
ants but to suck out the honey.
Hart
says,
A time-motion study of this
operation would show it to be most uneconomical; an hour's hard work for a few
cents worth of honey....Honey-ants can't be mined or excavated, no one has yet
thought out a process of mass-production or mechanical excavation. It just isn't economical. But for those children it was pure enjoyment.
It was a picnic with a purpose, an education in giving and sharing, a mother
teaching her children their way of life with its values and customs.
Hart
continues:
Try to make this education more
efficient by having one trained teacher for every thirty children and the
personal touch is destroyed, the enjoyment is lost and the important values are
not conveyed to them. One of the
greatest dangers in our present system of education is that Aboriginal parents
feel redundant; they are given the impression that their way of life, their
culture, and their values are superceded and the giant machine of schooling
will take care of all the education the children need.
One Aboriginal aide who had spent a
number of years working with white teachers informed me quite seriously, 'These
children come to school knowing nothing, absolutely nothing'. The language which they had learned at home
was grammatically perfect by the time they had reached school-going age, but
wasn't used in the school. Their knowledge
of the out-door world, the edible plants, berries and animals was quite
extensive, but not applicable inside the walls of the classroom. Their knowledge of the people in the
community and their characters and abilities was well-developed, but social
abilities are not at a premium where the child is required to sit still and
keep quiet. The values of the Aboriginal
world, of sharing and co-operation, of reliance on people rather than on money,
of using and enjoying rather than hoarding and storing, these values were
replaced in the classroom by the middle-class values of the acquisitive,
technological world of the walpala, (the white person). The Aboriginal teacher saw they knew nothing
of the walpala, learning, values and ambitions, so he discounted all the
valuable learning of those early years as being irrelevant to school.
Hart
concludes this particular line of thought as follows: "It doesn't take long for this message
to be transmitted to parents....When the education machine takes over in the
school with mass-production methods, the early learning of the child is not
only discounted as valueless, but it is discouraged and destroyed because the
parents themselves become convinced that their contribution is unwanted."
Winfield (1982;
vide Conway 1990, pp. 2, 6-9) described the harvest of honey ants by Aborigines
in central Australia. They may be eaten
at the digging site by biting off the gaster, or mixed with ground flour to
make a sweet dough or damper.
Roff (1983;
vide Conway 1990, pp. 2, 8, 11) reported the use of honey ants by Aborigines in
central Australia, and that, even today, dreamtime stories of honey ants are
wide-ranging in the Outback.
James (1983)
provided analyses of various indigenous Australian foods; data for larvae of the
green tree ant, Oecophylla smaragdina, are as follows: water 71.6%,
protein 15.6%, fat 0.8%, energy 450 kj/100g, thiamine 238 ug/100g,
ascorbic acid Tr/100g.
Conway (1985)
visited the Alice Springs area to study the honey ants, Camponotus inflatus
and Melophorus bagoti. He was
told by the aboriginal family with whom he stayed that aborigines may eat up to
50 repletes at a time, but they only partially dig up the nests in order not to
destroy the colonies and to preserve a valuable resource. Conway also sampled the taste of witchetty
grubs (found in the roots of Acacia sp.), which are eaten either raw or
after toasting them lightly in the ashes of the fire. The toasted grub was bland, according to
Conway, but with a taste somewhat like corn.
Although there may be 30 grubs per plant, they apparently do not harm
it. They are available the year round,
and are never found in roots deeper than 8 inches.
According
to Low (1989), both adult ants and larvae of O. smaragdina
were eaten in north Queensland, and the honeypot ants (Melophorus
species) were important foods in central Australia. Around Sydney, ants were
eaten with bland fern starch to provide flavor.
Conway (1990)
observed the use of honey ants and witchetty grubs near Alice Springs in
central Australia. The honey ants are
reported to get their nectar for storage either from red scale insects on mulga
trees or from flowers. In digging for
the ants, the first repletes were found at a depth of about 11 inches. Only part of the nest is dug up, in order not
to destroy it. Much of the other
information given here is a repeat of the author's 1985b paper.
Among
Australian species of honey ants, according to Conway (1994), Camponotus
inflatus develops the largest repletes, with gasters (abdomens) expanded to
the size of a marble. Also, according to Conway, only the large repletes of C.
inflatus are eaten by the Aborigines. Repletes of other honey ants in
Australia are smaller, those of Melophorus bagoti, for example, being
only about half as large as those of C. inflatus and they are not
normally eaten. Conway summarizes information on the biology and ecology under
the following subject headings: honey ant habitat, nest density, population
size, reproductives and nuptial activity, guests and parasites, repletes, nest
architecture, circadian and seasonal activity, food sources, intraspecific and
interspecific competition, and predators.
As
to the significance of honey ants in Aboriginal culture, Conway notes that
Aborigines expend much time and effort digging honey ants. In a one-year study
of 22 Aborigines, there were 76 excavations involving 80 hours of digging with
quantities of honey retrieved per dig ranging from 45 to 250 g. The author also
briefly discusses the importance of honey ants in Aboriginal mythology and
ancient and modern-day art.
See
also in the Introduction: Bardon (1979),
Barrallier (1802), Bourne (1953), Brough Smyth (1878, II), Campbell (1926),
Cherry (1991), Cleland (1966), Cutter (1978), Davies (1846), Finlayson (1943),
Fraser (1892), Gould (1969), Hiatt (1967-1968), Irvine (1989), Johnston (1943),
Macfarlane (1978), McKeown (1944a, b), Meggett (1962), Meyer-Rochow (1975a),
Moodie and Pederson (1971), Mountford (1946), Parker (1905), Reim (1962),
Roheim (1974), Roth (1897), Spencer and Gillen (1899), Stirling (1896), Sweeney
(1947), Thomas (1906), Tindale (1972) and Waterhouse (1971).
Perilampidae
Trachilogastir sp.,
mulga apples (galls)
See
Cleland (1966) in the Introduction
Vespidae (wasps,
hornets)
In
north Queensland, wasp larvae were smoked in the nests and eaten (Low 1989). See also Thomas (1906) in the Introduction.
Isoptera
Termites,
frequently associated with gum trees, are important items of food for
Aborigines (Tindale 1966). They
are collected by women using special digging sticks, spade-like scoops and
pointed hammerstones, and winnowed in wooden dishes. Ashes and hot embers are
shaken in the dishes with the termites to kill and cook them. Alternatively,
the live insects may be pounded and kneaded into a raw oily cake.
See
in the Introduction: Bourne (1953),
Cleland (1966), Gould (1969), McKeown (1944a), Meggett (1962), Moodie and
Pederson (1971) and Reim (1962).
Lepidoptera
Cossidae (carpenter moths, leopard
moths)
Catoxophylla cyanauges Turner,
adult
Cossus sp.,
larva
Xyleutes amphiplecta Turner,
larva
Xyleutes biarpiti Tindale,
larva
Xyleutes boisduvali
Herrich-Schaeffer, larva
Xyleutes eucalypti Scott,
larva
Xyleutes leuchomochla Turner,
larva
Xyleutes sp.
Zeuzera citurata
(author?), larva
Zeuzera eucalypti McKeown,
larva
Noetling (1910:
281, 290-291, 295) states that the white grubs of Z. eucalypti were
considered a delicacy by the Tasmanian Aborigines.
White (1915)
states, of foods in northwestern South Australia:
One of their, if not the chief,
foods is their 'margu', being the larvae of a big moth found in the roots of
the broad-leafed mulga (Acacia kempeana). The natives seem to detect the grub at the
roots by the foliage of the tree, and at once strike the ground with their
pointed stick, 'wanna', to find the position of the root. Having ascertained this, they soon loosen the
earth around and thrust the pointed end of the stick under the root and pressed
up sufficiently to be grasped by the hands and forced away from the stem, and
at the junction of stem and root the large grub is invariably found. It is sometimes eaten raw by biting off the
head and squeezing the contents into the mouth, but they are more often placed
in the hot ashes for a few minutes, when the skin is roasted like parchment and
the contents attain the consistency and colour of the yolk of an egg, and is of
a nutty flavour.
F.P.
Dodd, in Oberthur (1916, p. 33), cited by Bodenheimer (pp. 85-86),
reported on the great Australian cossid, Xyleutes eucalyptii. As summarized by Bodenheimer:
Many Australians have eaten these
caterpillars and all pronounce them quite palatable. At Townsville, 900 miles farther north, there
are still some blacks, but they seem to have become so used to the white man's
food that caterpillars, which have to be cut out of tough timber, no longer are
attractive for them. But here at
Kuranda, I have often been disappointed to find that a larva of X.
boisduvali, which perhaps I had located months before, had been cut out and
eaten by some wandering native. These
caterpillars are in green trees, and large coleopterous larvae in rotten trees
or logs are much sought for and esteemed by the Blacks here, which is 200 miles
north of Townesville, and at Heberton we several times met bands of youthful
blacks, provided with tomahawks, searching through the bush for these things,
principally the caterpillars, which, as a rule, are roasted a little before
being devoured.
Basedow (1925,
pp. 122-125) states that the most popular and widely distributed insect in the
diet is the witcheti (mispelled witchedy) grub.
He mentions that there are two varieties, one living in the roots of
shrubs such as Cassia and certain species of Acacia, and another that bores
into the butt or larger limbs of the eucalyptus. The former is detected by ramming the
yam-stick into the ground under the shrub and testing the roots' resistance to
leverage; if a grub is present, the root snaps, whereupon it is unearthed by
digging. Grubs in eucalyptus are
detected by the small holes the young larva bores into the bark. If the holes are high above the ground, the
natives will climb the tree. All grub
holes are examined on the way up and the occupants extracted. Basedow describes the methods of climbing and
the marvelous ease and assurance of the climbers. The grub is extracted by means of a hooked
stick cut from a small pronged twig, one arm of which is from 4-6 inches in
length, the other cut short and sharpened to form the hook. The hooked end is inserted into the hole
until the grub is hooked and then it is withdrawn. As the diameter of the hole is smallest at
its entrance, the bark is cut away to a shallow depth to allow the grub to be
drawn out. The witchetihook is used
throughout central and southern Australia and the Arunndta word for it is ullyinga.
Tindale (1953)
conducted the definitive study on the famous witjuti or witchety
(often mispelled as "witchetty") grubs of Australia, which are cossid
moth (Cossidae) larvae. In the Arabana
native language from which the term is taken, witjuti refers to the
shrub, not to the grub, and must be prefixed by the word mako, meaning
grub. Tindale states that,
"Aborigines with access to witjuti grubs usually are healthy and
properly nourished....Women and children spend much time digging for them and a
healthy baby seems often to have one dangling from its mouth in much the same
way that one of our children would be satisfied with a baby
comforter." He mentions that at
Ooldea, grubs were abundant enough that half-a-dozen boys required less than an
hour to gather an estimated half-pound weight of larvae. Also, over a period of several months spent
observing nomadic Pitjandjaras in the Mann and Musgrave Ranges, it was noted
that part of nearly every day's diet consisted of these larvae.
Tindale
furnishes much valuable information on the life cycles of the cossids and their
adaptation to the desert regions of Australia.
Xyleutes leucomochla Turner is a large species having a female
wing expanse of up to 17 cm or greater.
It occurs at least in Western Australia and South Australia. The mature larvae are about 8 cm in length by
1.5 cm in diameter, creamy white in color with the head, prothorax, spiracles
and appendages light brown. The larvae
are naked except for the inconspicuous primitive hairs. A contracted specimen preserved in alcohol
weighed 6.5 g according to Tindale. A
female pupa measured 7.4 cm in length by 1.6 cm in diameter. The larvae occupy a silken chamber from which
they feed on the roots of Acacia ligulata shrubs, incorporating the part
of the root being eaten into the walls of the chamber. Tindale states that the amount of wood
actually eaten is apparently relatively small and the larva relies on the flow
of sap for food, using the jaws to keep the wounds fresh. The silken chamber later shelters the pupa,
and is connected to the surface of the ground by a long (20-30 cm or longer)
silk-lined tunnel sealed with a silk cap at its upper end. At emergence the moth cuts away the cap and leaves
the empty pupal shell protruding from the soil within a foot or so of the butt
of the Acacia shrub. The adults
emerge in early autumn. The finding of
newly-vacated pupal shells, fully grown and half-grown larvae at the same
season suggests two years in the larval state.
The
grubs of X. leucomochla are called maka wardaruka by the Ngalea
people, meaning grubs of the wardaruka (Acacia ligulata)
shrubs. Their term for the pupae is mako
miring wardaruka, or simply mako miring, while the adults are kinta-kinta
wardaruka. The empty pupal shells
are said to be ilungu or "dead." Tindale notes that the time of year when
pupae rise to the surface prior to adult emergence is important to the people
because numbers of them can be gathered without the labor of digging deeply for
them. At the end of summer, in
anticipation of this event, the Pitjandjara sing a song, "Wardaruka
miring tjarei," meaning "Acacia trees pupae are
carrying." It is a popular song at
evening dances in which the women and children take part. The Pintubi people call X. leucomochla
or similar pupae wanman-umbiri or wanman-mbiring. A similar species from Acacia kempeana,
which has not yet been reared or identified, is called mako ilkoara by
the Pitjandjara.
Another
cossid used as food in Western Australia and South Australia is Xyleutes
biarpiti Tindale. The females are
incapable of flight. The larvae are
rather similar in general appearance to those of X. leucomochla, but
much smaller, an apparently full-grown larva measuring only 5.1 cm. Weight of a full-grown female larva is no
more than 2.2 g. Tindale gives the
length of a female pupa as 4.3 cm, that of a male pupa as 2.3 cm. The larvae are borers in the roots of Zygophyllum
fruticulosum; both larvae and pupae are in chambers within the main
root-stock of the shrubs. The escape
tunnel extending toward the surface of the sand is sealed with silk. Emergence of adults appears to take place at
about dusk. Native children can detect
the presence of grubs by differences in the state of growth of infested plants
compared to those not infested. Tindale
states that children spend much time digging for the grubs at the bases of the
shrubs. Zygophyllum bushes are
called biarpiti and the grubs are called mako biarpiti, the pupae
miring biarpiti or simply miring.
In some areas, according to Tindale, nearly 50 percent of the bushes
have one or more grubs.
The
females of Xyleutes amphiplecta Turner are also brachypterous. The species has a wide distribution in
Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia. The male is much smaller than the
female. The food plant in Queensland is Bassia,
in South Australia, Pachycornia trianda (Samphire). According to Tindale, the larvae are found in
or near the crown of the plant and, unlike many members of the family, are
relatively free-living and able to migrate from one shrub to another. The life cycle extends over two years. The females emerge in late summer. Tindale cites behavioral evidence for a
female-emitted sex attractant. The
larvae are used as bait by fishermen on the Murray River and as food by the
aborigines who scrape the ground over the nearly vertical holes and detect the
high humidity maintained in occupied burrows.
The grubs are collected by using a hooked stick.
Catoxophylla
cyanauges Turner also has females that are brachypterous. The species occurs in Western and South
Australia, central Australia and New South Wales. The food plant is apparently Acacia. Tindale states that the female moths appear
in March and April in the Northern Flanders Ranges. The Wailpi people call the moths ango and
relish them as food.
Larvae
of a fifth species of cossid discussed by Tindale occur in the roots of the
tumble weed or rolypoly bush (Salsola kali). The adult has not been identified. According to Tindale, this species is eaten
by aborigines in the Western Desert. In
searching for the larvae, a digging stick is swept across the patches of drying
weeds and those that are infested readily break off. Tindale states that the larvae are one of the
causes that make the shrub break off and become a tumble weed. Finally, a sixth species of cossid, also
unidentified, is mentioned. In addition,
Tindale makes reference to a buprestid grub that is edible.
Tindale (1958:
339; vide Hercus 1989) briefly summarizes information on witchetty grubs. Smith (1962) stated, after
frying the abdomen of a female Xyleutes boisduvali in a very little fat:
"In my opinion, when eaten with toast this was a superior dish to
scrambled eggs."
Tindale (1966)
states that the taste of Xyleutes, "when lightly cooked in hot
ashes, would delight a gourmet" and further elaborates: "I visited a
cattle station at Mandora, in Western Australia, where a daily accompaniment to
the whisky drink, before dinner, was a plate of toasted cossid grubs. They have
a flavour all their own, like cream cheese with chitin adding the firmness of
the crackling on roast pork. The grubs are equally delicious when eaten raw . .
."
Reuther
(1981), cited by Hercus (1989), describes how the Diyari Ancestor
"Darana," by means of magic incantations collected grass witchetty
grubs, called muluru in Diyari, and then dried and powdered them.
Meyer-Rochow (1982)
mentions several examples of insects used as food in various parts of the
world, mainly the same examples included in some of his previous papers. In addition, he presents data on vitamin and
mineral content of witjuti grubs as follows:
vitamin D (400 i.u./g), vitamin A (10 i.u./g), iron (6 ppm), copper (5
ppm) and zinc (19 ppm).
James
(1983)
provided analyses for various indigenous Australian foods, including the
following data for witchetty grub: water 60.7%, protein 15.1%, fat 19.2%,
energy 1167 kj/100 g, thiamin 1000 ug/100 g, and ascorbic acid 5 mg/100
g.
Kimber (1984:
18), relative to food storage as part of resource management by Aborigines in
the Simpson Desert and associated arid lands, discussed the moolili grub or
muluru caterpillars (grass ?) which were gathered in large numbers, crushed,
dried and stored as flour for future use [these might be hepialids?]. Clarke (1988: 70) states that
witchetty grubs were obtained from the roots of Xanthorrhoea. Low
(1989) states that witchetty grubs are "nutty-tasting; they can be
eaten raw but are especially delicious when roasted over a fire. Cherry (1991) notes that witchety
larvae are rich in calories, protein and fat
and cites the Australian National Commission of UNESCO (1973) that 10
witchety are sufficient to provide the daily needs of an adult. These grubs were the most important insect
food of the desert and were a much valued staple in the diet, especially for
women and children.
See
also in the Introduction: Bardon (1979),
Basedow (1904), Bluett (1954), Bourne (1953), Brough Smyth (1878, I), Campbell
(1926), Cleland (1940, 1966), Conway (1990), Cutter (1978), Davies (1846),
Finlayson (1943), Hercus (1989), Irvine (1989), Macfarlane (1978), Matthew
(1910), Meggett (1962), Meyer-Rochow (1975a, 1976), Moodie and Pederson (1971),
Mountford (1946), Pfeiff and Hutchison (1993), Reim (1962), Roheim (1974),
Scherer (1991), Spencer and Gillen (1899), Stirling (1896), Sweeney (1947),
Tindale (1972) and Waterhouse (1971).
Some other mentions of "grubs" may pertain to this family.
Hepialidae (ghost moths and swifts)
Abantiades marcidus Tindale,
larva, pupa, adult
Oxycanus spp.,
larvae, pupae, adults
Trictena argentata
Herrich-Schaeffer, larva, pupa, adult
Trictena argyrosticha Turner,
larva, pupa, adult
Angas (1847,
I, p. 57) reported that while in camp in South Australia, "large
ghost-moths [Family Hepialidae] fluttered into the embers, in such quantities
that the natives made a capital supper on their scorched and roasted
bodies."
Gray (1930,
p. 6; vide Bodenheimer, p. 87) mentions that the natives of the Wirra Lube at
Orroro dug up the grubs and pupae of ghost moths (Hepialidae) around the big
gum trees on Pekina Creek and cooked them in ashes. They were known as barti. Tindale (1932, pp. 504-505; vide Bodenheimer,
p. 87) states that one female of the big Australian ghost moth, Trictena
argentata H.S., which is widely eaten, deposited 29,000 eggs and still
contained 15,000 developing eggs in its abdomen. In the southern districts, the moths emerge
in the late afternoon after the first autumn rains have fallen. In the arid northern areas of South Australia
they emerge at irregular seasons, shortly after or during heavy
rainstorms. The moths are attracted to
light and fire.
Writing
of another ghost moth, Abantiades marcidus Tindale, Tindale (1932,
pp. 516-517) states:
The Wirrangu natives of Fowler Bay,
on the West Coast of South Australia, dig up the larvae and pupae from around
the roots of 'gumtrees' and use them as food.
The adults fly into the camp fires in great numbers; when this happens
they are carefully raked out and eaten.
They distinguish four stages: the
small larvae, pindi; the full-grown larvae, yalgunda; the pupae, ljirgi;
and the adult moths, kunku. The
pupa of this species is 80 mm in length by 15 mm in greatest diameter. The
pupal chamber is a silk-lined, vertical, subterranean shaft, 63-75 cm in depth,
extending to within a few millimeters of the surface. Pupation occurs at the base of the
tunnel. The pupa is capable of motion
and the plug of earth closing the chamber is lifted like a hinged lid when the
pupa thrusts itself halfway out of the hole during emergence.
Tindale (1938,
pp. 2, 5)) states from his own observations regarding Trictena argentata:
The natives of Warupuyu, where we
camped, are exceedingly fond of the grubs.
They call them mako tuuta, i.e. the grubs (mako) of the tuutu,
or red gumtree). Tuutu trees grow on the low sandy banks and on the beds
of wide waterless creeks, which only flow after the rare floods caused by
summer rains.
The natives discover the places
where the larvae of Trictena argentata are likely to be living by
observing minute cracks on the surface of the ground. In such places the earth has fissured and
contracted during dry weather, cracking most readily above one or other of the
lateral roots of the tree. They dig down
along these cracks and find vertical silk-lined tunnels, commencing at a depth
of about six inches. They examine the
tunnels closely and smell the silken lining.
If the material is damp, but has the correct odour, and if they see
signs of freshly spun silk, they continue down several feet, using a native
digging stick and their hands in excavating. By persisting in the search, grubs
may be discovered, usually at depths of from four to five feet. The sand at
this level is quite damp. Usually the
grubs are deep down and much labour must be expended to obtain them, therefore
they are considered only as an occasional luxury. When the pupae work their way
towards the surface just before rain falls in the summer season, they are more
readily available as food. On the night
when the moths emerge, there is a great feast for the children, for the moths
flutter wildly into the numerous fires which are built to attract them. . . .
On one occasion when a grub was
being dug out, it was injured in the process;
the native cooked it by laying it in the hot ashes of his camp fire for
about half a minute. When the skin
became taut with the warmed juices within it, he raked it out, flicked it with
his fingers to remove the adhering dust and offered it to me. It tasted like warm cream or the baked skin
on roast pork, and was quite delicious.
Tindale (1966)
adds T. argyrosticha to the list of species eaten (in Queensland) and
states that many species of the genus Oxycanus are eaten. The larvae of
hepialids are external feeders on the roots of gum trees and on several species
of Acacia and when full-grown may be up to six inches in length. Tindale
emphasizes their sensitivity to both dessication and excessive moisture and
notes that they may be found at depths of six feet.
See
also in the Introduction: Campbell
(1926), Cleland (1966) and Matthew (1910).
Some other mentions of "grubs" may pertain to this family.
Noctuidae (noctuids)
Agrotis infusa Boisd.
(= A. spina, A. suffusa and Euxoa spina), adult
Bennett (1834,
pp. 265-273) describes a trip to "Bugong Mountain" to see for himself
the multitudes of moths which congregate on the granite walls and are called
"Bugong" by the aborigines.
"The months of November, December, and January, are quite a season
of festivity among the native blacks, who assemble from far and near to collect
the Bugong; the bodies of these insects, contain a quantity of oil, and they
are sought after as a luscious and fattening food." Bennett's observations indicated that the
moths congregate only where there are massive granite outcroppings, one such
location being known as "Warrogong" by the natives. Mr. Hamilton Hume is credited for the
information that the Bugong is found also in the Snow Mountains by the
aborigines living to the southward and forms their principal food during the
summer.
To
collect the moths from the surfaces and crevices of the granite masses, the
natives build smokey fires at the base.
They are swept from the walls by the bushels-full. Bennett describes the preparation of the
moths as follows:
A circular space is cleared upon the
ground, of a size proportioned to the number of insects to be prepared; on it a
fire is lighted and kept burning until the ground is considered to be
sufficiently heated, when, the fire being removed, and the ashes cleared away,
the moths are placed upon the heated ground, and stirred about until the down
and wings are removed from them; they are then placed on pieces of bark, and winnowed
to separate the dust and wings mixed with the bodies: they are then eaten, or placed into a wooden
vessel called a 'Walbun, or Culibun,' and pounded by a piece of wood into
masses or cakes resembling lumps of fat, and may be compared in colour and
consistence to dough made from smutty wheat mixed with fat. The bodies of the moths are large, and filled
with a yellowish oil, resembling in taste a sweet nut. These masses (with which the 'Netbuls' or
'Talabats' of the native tribes are loaded, during the season of feasting upon
the 'Bugong,') will not keep above a week, and seldom for even that time; but
by smoking they are able to preserve them for a much longer period. The first time this diet is used by the
native tribes, violent vomiting and other debilitating effects are produced;
but after a few days they become accustomed to its use, and then thrive and
fatten exceedingly upon it.
Bennett
continues, "These insects are held in such estimation among the
aborigines, that they assemble from all parts of the country to collect them
from these mountains." Bennett
notes that the crows are also very fond of the Bugong, so fond, in fact, that
they try to steal it even while it is being prepared by the natives."
Bell (1853:
286), referring to the Tumut Valley in 1839, stated:
My own experience of the natives at
this time led me to suppose they were a very inoffensive race; for all I had
seen had been the Bogong blacks, on the Tumut, who came down in the summer from
the ranges, sleek and lazy from the grub or fly of that name which infests that
part of the country. I think they were the
handsomest natives I have ever seen; at all events they were the best
conditioned.
Eyre (1859:
55; vide Flood 1980: 70) provides early
evidence of Bogong moth hunting in the Canberra district between 1832 and
1839. While looking over a piece of property
in the Molonglo Plains, he learned that:
"at the Tinderry Mountains a kind of moth...congregates...in such
great numbers that the blacks flock from all quarters to catch and eat
them...they taste like a burnt almond.
The Blacks never look so fat or shiny as they do during the 'Bougan'
season and even their wretched half-starved dogs get into good condition then,
in such profusion and so fattening are they.
Scott (1869: 40-48; vide Flood 1980: 61-62, Table 5), provides (according to
Flood, p. 61) the only eyewitness account of Bogong moth hunting, as narrated
to him by Robert Vyner, who, in 1865, ascended (with a guide) a peak called
Numoiadonga by the Aborigines [probably Numbananga Peak approached from Tumut
Valley to the west, according to Flood]:
The moths were found in vast
assemblages sheltered within the deep fissures, and between the huge masses of
rocks, which there form recesses, and might almost be considered as caves. On both sides of the chasms the face of the
stone was literally covered with these insects, packed closely side by side,
over head and under, presenting a dark surface of a scale-like pattern -- each
moth was resting firmly by its feet on the rock, and not on the back of others,
as in a swarm of bees. So numerous were
these moths that six bushels of them could easily have been gathered by the
party at this one peak; so abundant were the remains of the former occupants
that a stick was thrust into the debris on the floor to a depth of four feet.
Mr Vyner tells me that on this
occasion he ate, properly cooked by Old Wellington [the guide], about a quart
of the moths, and found them exceedingly nice and sweet, with a flavour of
walnut, so much so that he desired to have 'another feed'...The Bugong moths
are collected and prepared for food by the aborigines in this wise: a blanket or sheet of bark is spread on the
floor; the moths, on being disturbed with a stick fall down, are gathered up
before they have time to crawl or fly away, and thrust into a bag. To cook them a hole is made in a sandy spot
and a smart fire lit on it until the sand is thoroughly heated, when all
portions left of the glowing coal are carefully picked out, for fear of
scorching the insects -- as in such a case a violent storm would inevitably
arise, according to their superstitious notions. The moths are now poured out of the bag,
stirred about in the hot ashes for a short time, and then placed upon a sheet
of bark until cold. The next process is
to sift them carefully in a net, by which action the heads fall through, and
thus the wings and legs having previously singed off, the bodies are obtained
properly prepared. In this state they
are generally eaten, but sometimes they are ground into a paste by the use of a
smooth stone and hollow piece of bark, and made into cakes.
Scott (1873;
vide Common 1954, p. 224) reported that in 1867, bogong moths invaded the city
of Sydney in such vast numbers that they constituted a public nuisance. Millions of the moths had apparently flown
out to sea, for they littered the beaches north and south of Sydney for more
than 100 miles.
The
Victorian highland tribes exploited the Bogong moth as shown by von Lendenfeld
in his 1886 report on the goldfields of Victoria (Victoria Department of
Mines 1884-89: 72; vide Flood
1980: 70): "The high tablelands which constitute
the nucleus of this range are inhabited by a species of moth belonging to the
Noctuina. The caterpillars of it are
exceedingly abundant, and formed, half-roasted, at certain seasons, a favourite
food of the Australian natives. The
natives call these caterpillars 'Bogong', which name was afterwards applied to
the habitat of the Bogong."
Helms (1890:
14-15) observed millions of "Boogong" moths in March, 1889, on the
highest peak of the Ramshead Range (Kosciusko region). He mentions that immense
numbers of birds pursue the moths and thousands of crows (? ravens) were always
to be found about the rocks where the moths congregate. Helms was told by an
informant who had lived in the area for many years that small parties of men
would head for the rocks on the summit as early as October, as soon as snow had
melted on the lower ranges. "A great gathering usually took place about
Christmas on the highest ranges, and for about two months a great feast of roasted
moths would be held." Participating
tribes were friendly, and some had come from a long distance. Helm's account of
how the moths were stupified by smoke, collected and cooked in hot ashes was
expanded in his later (1895) account (see the following).
Helms (1895,
pp. 394-396, 406-407) describes the harvest of "Bugong" moths (Agrotis
spina Gn.) by the Omeo tribe, drawing heavily on personal accounts from
early settlers. The Omeo, according to
Helms, had become extinct at the time of this writing. Helms did not become aware of the earlier
description by Bennett until after he had written the account quoted
below:
The food supply was as a rule
abundant in the district during favourable seasons. It consisted of all kinds of game, birds and
birds' eggs, reptiles, fishes, and insects. Amongst the first the opossum
furnished probably the most frequent meal, because it occurred very abundantly;
and amongst the insects the "Bugong" supplied numbers of the natives
with a fattening diet for months. How
this unique and remarkable food supply, found always on the highest mountains,
was procured deserves a detailed description:
--As early as October, as soon as the snow had melted on the lower
ranges, small parties of natives would start during fine weather for some of
the frost-riven rocks and procure "Bugongs" for food. A great gathering usually took place about
Christmas on the highest ranges, when sometimes from 500 to 700 aborigines
belonging to different friendly tribes would assemble almost solely for the purpose
of feasting upon roasted moths.
Sometimes these natives had to come great distances to enjoy this food,
which was not only much appreciated by them but must have been very nutritious,
because their condition was generally improved by it, and when they returned
from the mountains their skins looked glossy and most of them were quite
fat. Their method of catching the
insects was both simple and effective.
With a burning or smouldering bush in the hand the rents in the rocks
were entered as far as possible, when the heat and smoke would stifle the
thickly congregated moths, that occupied nearly every crack, and make them
tumble to the bottom of the cleft. Here
an outstretched kangaroo skin or a fine net made of kurrajong fibre would
receive most of the stupified and half-singed insects, which were then roasted
on hot ashes. This process required some
care and attention in order to prevent the bodies of the moths getting
scorched, and therefore the ashes required to be not too hot and had to be free
from large glowing embers. The insects
were thrown upon the ashes and well mixed with them, and then the whole was
stirred with sticks till the wings and legs had broken away and the body was
cooked, when it generally shrivelled to the size of a grain of wheat. The mass was freed of the ashes by dropping
it by degrees into some vessel or on a skin and allowing the wind to sift it;
the food was still further cleansed from adhering particles of dust and other
unpalatable substances by gently rubbing it between the hands, and rolling it
backwards and forwards from one to the other whilst blowing from the
mouth. The taste of the roasted bodies
of the "bugongs" is, according to some Europeans who tried them, sweetish
and nut-like and rather pleasant eating.
This unique food supply is
restricted to the highest mountains of Australia, but here it can always be
found in abundance during the summer months.
It is a marvel that the highest and stoniest ridges, on which snow lies
for fully five and sometimes six months of the year, with a naturally scant
though rapidly growing summer vegetation, should harbour such enormous numbers
of an insect (the caterpillar of which is known to be very voracious) which was
at one time the means of fattening a congregation of over 500 aborigines every
season.
Helms
visited Mt. Tate in February 1893 and states:
Unless seen it is scarcely credible
what an enormous number of the Bugong moths inhabit the crevices and clefts of
the rocks on the highest ridges of the mountains...Thousand of crows may be
seen swarming during the whole of the summer about the rocks feeding on nothing
else but the moths....Like the dusky coloured men, the birds are fonder of this
food than anything else, and will not touch even dead or dying sheep, I am informed,
whilst plenty of "Bugongs' are to be found.
Helms notes that the statement by von
Lendenfeld (1886) that it is the Bugong caterpillar that is eaten is incorrect.
Jardine (1901:
53-54; vide Flood 1980: 67, Table 5,
80-81) described Bogong moth hunting by the Currak-da-bidgee Tribe, N.S.W. at
Jindabyne in the Kosciusko region in 1844 and 1845. "The moths used to be so numerous that
when they rose in the air they looked like a dark cloud." The feasting began in September and lasted
two to three months. The moths were
caught with a net in the rock shelters.
Sand was heated with large fires, moths placed in oven in burning hot
and covered up. They cooked in a few
minutes, and were picked out of the hot sand with sharp sticks. Jardine says the moths were "nutritious
and palatable," having the "flavour of marrow (I have tasted them
myself." The Aborigines went up to
the mountains looking very thin and miserable, but returned in from 2 to 3
months looking fat and sleek. He said,
"The gins are not permitted to eat this food, so are sent in the forest to
collect roots etc. during the feast."
Jardine estimated that the Aborigines must have eaten several tons of
moths during their two to three month stay each year.
Howitt (1904:
693) describes a meeting between a friend of his and two young men of the
Ngarigo tribe, about the year 1840 at the Snowy River near Barnes's
Crossing (near Dalgety): "one of them carried two peeled sticks
each about two feet long, and with notches cut in them, which they told him
reminded them of their message. The sticks were about one half-inch in
diameter. Their message was that they were to collect their tribe to meet those
of the Tumut River [Walgalu] and Queanbeyan [Ngunawal], at a place in the
Bogong Mountains, to eat the Bogong moths."
Tillyard (1926)
states (p. 442) that Agrotis infusa Bd. (= spina Gn.)
(Agrotinae), the Australian Bugong or Bogong moth, frequently appears in
countless numbers in the Southern Alps, and in dry seasons along the eastern
coast. It sometimes swarms in Sydney,
becoming a nuisance in houses. Tillyard
notes that the moth was an important article of food for the aborigines, who
made a dough or paste from the bodies.
Gale (1927: 57-58; vide Flood 1980: 67, 70) was told by
Mrs. John McDonald of Uriarra, A.C.T., on whose property the Aborigines
gathered to feast on Bogong moths that:
"It was the yearly custom of the blacks to assemble from all the
neighbouring districts, with their gins [women] and piccaninnies, to some
hundreds in number, for the purpose of feasting on the grubs...These were
gathered by the majority of the congregated blacks and gins, while a small
detachment remained at home to prepare for the cooking or roasting of the
grubs." According to Mrs. McDonald,
the moths were cooked on a very large flat rock slab behind the homestead, and
derived the name "Uriarra" from "Urayarra" which meant
"running to the feast."
McDonald's evidence is contrary to several previous reports suggesting
that moth hunting was strictly a male activity.
When
Robinson visited the Monaro in July 1844, he commented (Mackaness, ed., 1941: 328; vide Flood 1980: 70):
"The natives of the low country and of the mountains assemble in
large numbers in the fine season to collect the Boogong fly, a species of moth
found in myriads in the higher altitudes of the mountains. They are extremely nutritious and the natives
subsist during the season entirely upon them, they are called Cori by the Omeo,
and Boogong by the Yass blacks."
According to Flood (1980: 70),
Coree is the name of a mountain in the Australian Capital Territory, on which
both moth aestivation sites and Aboriginal campsites have been found.
Payten (1949;
vide Flood 1980: 73-75, 81), based on
the recollections of old settlers of the Jindabyne district, states, regarding
the Bogong moth (p. 1): "From Eden,
Bega, Braidwood, Tumut, the Upper Murray, and Gippsland the tribes wended their
way to the tablelands and thence to the foot of the main range. Here a halt was made to observe certain
formalities before commencing the feast of several months' duration, usually
November, December and January. For
these three months the aborigines feasted on the moth, to them a great delicacy
and a food which was both plentiful and easily acquired." Payten continues: "The excursions of these tribes and
groups were contrary to the usual fixed tribal boundaries and knowing the ways
of the Aboriginal we would expect that such a migration would be carried out
under proper rules and procedures."
Payten (pp. 2-4) describes in detail the "formalities," rules
and procedures governing the moth hunting.
Pitched battles between the New South Wales and Victorian tribes are
mentioned, but "old hands" were firm in insisting that these were
intertribal battles and not mere local brawls.
Payten
(p. 2) states: "That the Bugong
moth was important to their mode of life is self-evident from the long
distances travelled and the arduous journeys entailed. The Upper Murray groups in order to
participate in the festival made the gruelling ascent up along the ridge near
Leather Barrell Creek to the tops at Kosciusko.
The ascent is as steep and rough as it is long, for the track leads up
what is probably the biggest single drop in Australia."
Common (1954)
conducted studies on the biology, ecology and behavior of the bogong moth, Agrotis
infusa (Boisd.) (= Euxoa infusa and A. spina Guenee),
shedding much light on the mystery of the origin of the vast number of these
moths that congregate on granite outcroppings in the mountains. Moths of the spring generation migrate to the
mountains where they aestivate gregariously from early November until early
April, the months when the "moth camps" are occupied by the
aborigines. In the late summer and
autumn, the moths migrate back to their breeding grounds at lower elevations in
New South Wales and southern Queensland.
The fat-body of aestivating moths during summer and autumn was
well-developed, the average fat content of the abdomens of males exceeding 61%
and of females 51% of their dry weight.
Bogong
moths were apparently preservable enough to be carried down from the mountains
as Wilkinson (1970: 7-9;
vide Flood 1980: 67) says: "The Bogong moths caught in the
mountains named after them were a great relish with the blacks. After being properly cured for eating they
were more like prunes than anything else.
They were carried about in Coolamons (the hollowed out bend of a
tree)."
Hughes (1974: 121-127) discusses the ecological and
physiological basis for the seasonal migrations of the Bogong moth.
Flood (1976: 42-44) quotes, regarding details of the
organization of moth-hunting, from an early description by a European settler:
The excursions of these tribes and
groups were contrary to the usual fixed tribal boundaries...The pilgrimage
halted on these corroboree grounds at foot of the main range for two
reasons. Firstly, the exchange of
greetings and ensuing social ceremonies.
Secondly because they were not permitted by tribal laws to proceed to
the tops until a certain rite had been performed.
This rite was performed near two
large granite rocks on the Big Bugong, by an advance party. Bull roarers were used and the ceremonial was
accompanied by much noise and shouting.
On completion of the rite a smoke signal was put up and only then, never
before, the tribes assembled on the corroboree grounds broke up into their
seperate groups and proceeded independently to the tops. Eventually reaching the tops some groups
camped there, others built their mia mias [shelters] lower down in more
sheltered positions making a daily excursion to gather the moths. There is some evidence to show that the
groups did not wander over the tops indiscriminately, but that each group may
have had its own pitch. A chief known as
Dicky Cooper brought his group to the same place year after year. This locality came to be known as Dicky
Cooper's Bugong.
Flood comments that the concept of each
group having its own pitch would be a practical way of dividing long mountain
chains amongst a series of groups coming from both sides of the range.
Josephine
Flood
(1980) conducted an exhaustive study on the use of the bogong moth (Agrotis
infusa) by the tribes of southeastern Australia, and concludes that they
were a major food source. From reviewing
the previous literature (12 references) (pp. 61-82) she notes (p. 82):
Of these sources, seven describe the
effect of the moth diet as rendering the Aborgines fat, sleek, and in excellent
condition. A considerable amount of moth
feasting is implied to achieve this transformation. Those authorities (five) who mention the
duration of the moth hunting all write in terms of two months or longer each
summer. The moths are described as being
available in 'great numbers', 'multitudes', 'millions', 'myriads', etc. by eight
of our eleven sources, and three describe them as a favourite delicacy of the
Aborigines.
Flood
continues:
There is thus a high degree of
consensus (and no contra-indications) among the ethnohistorical sources that
Bogong moths were available in large quantities for a considerable period and
were a highly-prized food on which at least the male Aborigines grew fat during
the summer months. Although moth hunting
was primarily a male activity, there are indications that moths were ground
into a paste and carried down in coolamons to the valleys to the rest of the
tribe.
Flood
continues:
. . . the large quantities of moths
and their ease of gathering make them the most reliable summer food source in
the Australian highlands, as I found from personal experience when
experimenting in 'living off the land' in the Brindabella Range of the A.C.T.
one summer. As a favourite food of the
upland Aborigines, moths would be given high priority in the annual scheduling
of food, being preferred to other foods that were available at the same
time. Thus Bogong moths were both part
of the annual seasonal subsistence round, and also the means to support large
seasonal congregations of people for such essentials to tribal society as
shared ceremonial life, marriage and trade.
Flood
(pp. 109, 112) considers the moths to have been prized food for all of those
tribes whose territories included major moth-aestivation sites, i.e., the
Walgalu of the upper Tumut, the Ngarigo of Monaro, the Djilamatang of the upper
Murray, the Jaimathang of Omeo, and the Minjambuta of Mt. Buffalo, as well as
several other tribes. Flood describes in
detail many of the campsites and also tools used, such as "moth
pestles." Flood emphasizes (p. 76
and elsewhere) the prime importance of the social aspects of moth hunting,
indicated by the fact that, although the highland tribes could have feasted
independently on moths within their own tribal territories, they gathered
together for moth feasts.
Oliver (1989:
174-175) notes relative to collecting the bogong moth, Agrotis infusa,
that although most of the people were from the lower elevations of the
highlands, some may have come from as far away as the coasts to the east and
south, from distances up to 100 miles.
Although fights occasionally broke out among the communities, the normal
mood was friendly. In fact, the
assemblies came to be the occasion for large intercommunity ceremonies,
including initiation rites. Oliver
states that:
The annual assemblies of moth-eaters
were also occasions for trading regional specialties such as boomerangs,
spears, baskets, opposum-fur garments, and, possibly, ochre, songs, and
elements of the rituals they performed.
While the seasonal presence of the moths may have been the main reason
for people assembling, the desire to hold intercommunity rituals, and to trade,
may have figured, inasmuch as some assemblies included communities from other
areas where moth aestivation also took place.
See
also in the Introduction: Bluett (1954),
Brough Smyth (1878, I), Campbell (1926), Cherry (1991), Irvine (1989), McKeown
(1944a), Thomas (1906) and Waterhouse (1971).
Psychidae (bagworm moths)
Panacela sp.,
larva
See
Tindale (1972) in the Introduction.
Sphingidae (hawk-moths)
Coenotes eremophilae (Lucas)
Hyles lineata livornicoides
(author?), larva
Aborigines
starved the caterpillars of H. lineata livornicoides for a day or two
before roastng them. According to Low (1989), the cooked larvae
have a pleasant savoury taste and can be stored for a long time.
See
Reim (1962) and Tindale (1972) in the Introduction.
Family unknown
Strigops grandis
(author?), larva
Panacela sp.,
larva
Simmonds (1885,
p. 355) wrote that the large fat caterpillars of Strigops grandis are
eaten by the aborigines of Australia.
Matthew (1910,
p. 90; vide Bodenheimer, p. 100) reports that natives of Queensland detect the
presence of large lepidopterous wood-borers by the wood-dust they dislodge,
which can be seen at the entrance of their holes or on the ground. The grubs are removed by means of a pointed
stick and are eaten raw or roasted, the head being rejected. Matthew reports on the basis of personal
experience that the larvae are a delicate food, having the flavor and
consistency of a soft rice pudding enriched with eggs.
Basedow (1925)
states (p. 122) that the Wongapitcha and other desert tribes consume quantities
of green caterpillars, but usually only at the beginning of the season when the
caterpillars have fed on fresh herbs and acquired a sweetish flavor.
See
also in the Introduction: Basedow
(1904), Bourne (1953), Gould (1969), Hercus (1989), Hiatt (1967-1968), Johnston
(1943), Meggett (1962), Meyer-Rochow (1975a) Roth (1897), Thomas (1906) and
Tindale (1972).
Mantodea
See
Johnston (1943) in the Introduction.
Orthoptera
Acrididae (short-horned grasshoppers)
Chorticetes terminifera
(author?)
Lumholtz (1889,
pp. 186-187) mentions swarms of grasshoppers in Queensland and that the women
gathered large quantities of them. Their
wings and legs were removed by throwing them into the fire, after which they
were individually roasted. They tasted
like nuts.
The
Kaiadilt people of Bentinck Island use a large species of plague locust as food
(Tindale 1966). The locusts are strung side by side on sharpened sticks
and toasted lightly over the cooking-fire.
Brand
et al
(1983) conducted proximate and mineral analyses on the plague locust, C.
terminifera, and reported the following values: water 67.2%, protein 25.0%,
fat 2.0%, carbohydrate, trace, fiber 10.4%, ash 2.0%; minerals (mg/100 g edible
portion): Na 101, K 239, Mg 37, Fe 4.0, Zn 9.2, Cu 2.2. Energy was calculated
as 499 kJ/100 g edible portion.
See
Meggett (1962) and Meyer-Rochow (1975a) in the Introduction.
Gryllidae (crickets)
Teleogryllus commodus (Walk.)
See
Meggett (1962) in the Introduction.
Gryllotalpidae
See
Meyer-Rochow (1975a) in the Introduction.
Miscellaneous
Froggatt (1923,
pp. 9, 10) discusses forest damage caused by insects in several of the edible
groups, but does not discuss their use as human food. Relative to cattle, he mentions that the
phytophagous larvae of one species of Pterogopherus (Tenthridinidae)
sawfly appears sometimes in countless millions, stripping the leaves from the
ironbark gums; they congregate at the base of the tree when full-fed and
numbers of cattle sometimes die from eating them.
Edible
insect galls. See Cleland (1966),
Meyer-Rochow (1975a) and Sweeney (1947) in the Introduction. As gall-producing insects occur in five
different orders, it is not possible to assign these to families.
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Chapter 28 of, The Human Use of Insects as a Food Resource: A Bibliographic Account in Progress, posted on web site September, 2002.
Added References
Conway, J.R. 1985. Australiese inboorlinge se vreemde kos-wurms virsy ontbyt. Huisgenoot, June, pp. 70-71. (Reports honey ant use by Aborigines in central Australia)
Bryce, S. 1986. Women's gathering and hunting in the Pitjantjatjara homelands. [Journal?] (Honey ant use in central Australia)
Devitt, J. 1986. A taste for honey: Aborigines and the collection of ants with mulga in Central Australia. In: P.S. Sattler (Ed.), The Mulga Lands. Brisbane: Roy. Soc. Queensland. (Honey ants)
Eylmann, E. 1908. Die Eingeborenen der Kolonie Sudaustralien. Berlin: Dietrich Reimer (Ernst Vohsen), pp. 179-180, 278-279, 284-286. [1966 Reprint, Johnson Reprint Corp., New York, N.Y.] (Awaiting translation)
Froggatt, W.W. 1903. Insects used as food by the Australian natives. Sci. of Man 6: 11-13.
Meyer-Rochow, V.B. 1973. Insekten gefallig? Selecta 15(14): 1396.
Meyer-Rochow, V.B. 1982. Klima and Sprachenentwicklung. Naturwissen. Rundschau 35(5): 203-205.
Moodie, P.M.; Pedersen, E.B. 1971 The Health of Australian Aborigines: An Annotated Bibliography. Canberra: Govt. Publ. Serv., 246 pp. (Not seen but contains many references to cooking and food gathering by the aborigines and probably contains nutritional data.)
Items Needing Attention
Pp. 1, 44. Calvert (1894 or 1898?).
Pp. 2, 49. Roth (1897). Need to see Sections 53 and 84 (Fig. 84) of this work.
P. 5. McKeown (1944a, b). Some confusion as to which of these should be attributed for one of the statements made.
Pp. 7, 49. This is a make-shift summary by the author; a firm translation is needed.
Pp. 25, 50. Terry (1941), pages?
P. 45. Dobson (1851), title of paper?
P. 32. Kimber (1984), cossids or hepialids?
P. 46. Fluckinger and Watts (1875), initials?
P. 48. Lumholtz, 1890 or 1900?
P. 50. Winfield (1982), page 80?