Uses of insects as human food in Papua New Guinea, Australia, and North‐East India: Cross‐cultural considerations and cautious conclusions

Taxonomic identifications and vernacular names are given of insects as well as some spiders which are consumed as food by members of the following ethnic communities: Ao‐Naga (North‐east India), Chimbu (Papua New Guinea, Central Highlands), Onabasulu (Papua New Guinea, Southern Highlands), Kiriwina (Western Pacific, Trobriand Islands), Walbiri (Central Australian desert), Pintupi (Central Australian desert), and Maori (New Zealand, Aotearoa). Differences and similarities of entomophagy habits between the groups are examined in the light of cultural, ethnic, and linguistic relationships. It is postulated that prehistorically two centres in the region under discussion existed where entomophagy evolved and from where the practice spread: Southern India and South‐east Asia. It is further postulated that the sugar‐containing insects were the first to find a place in the regular diet of prehistoric man, followed by insects which were rich in fats and lipids, and finally those which contained mostly protein. According to this scenario Australian Aborigines belong to the earliest group of insect eaters. Evidence is also presented that the domestication of the silk worm and the use of its product (i.e. silk) could have arisen from the practice of eating wild silkworm larvae and pupae in North‐east India. Finally, a plea is made to fund research into the many uses of insects in traditional societies, before it is too late and such information is irretrievably lost.

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Correspondence: V.B. Meyer‐Rochow, Institute of Arctic Medicine, Aapistie 1, University of Oulu, SF‐90220 Oulu, Finland, [e‐mail: [email protected]].