Chapter 2. Insect Foods of North American Indigenous Populations ...

Chapter 229 of 68 9/20/2012 1:34 PMwas caught, boiled, dried, and eaten. They caught them in their hands in the spring and lateautumn. There was a peculiar way of catching them: with one hand they caught the beast, brokeoff the end with the thumb nail, squeezed it out, and inserted it between the other fingers of thesame hand. In some fashion they braided long strings of these, perhaps because the 'worm' coiledaround its fellows. Then they boiled and dried them. They were eaten dried or boiled. Dried'worms' were also heated in warm water and fried. The finger tips got sore gathering them.Spier mentions that the caterpillars are said to travel rapidly. He considered this to be the same as the Pimama'kum.Feninga and Fisher (1978), by analyzing earlier reports, confirm the identity of one of the insects usedby the Cahuilla as the caterpillar of the white-lined sphinx moth, Hyles lineata. These authors state that, “Inresearching this subject, it has become apparent to us that the relatively uncharted field of ethnoentomology hasconsiderable potential for adding to existing knowledge of California Indian life.”See also Fowler (1986, food of Great Basin tribes), Kelly (1964, food of the southern Paiute), Lando andModesto (1977, H. lineata), Powers (1877a, food of California Indians).Miscellaneous LepidopteraChilds (1953: 35) mentioned that in living with and around the Sand Papago (along the U.S. -- Mexicanboundary toward the Gulf of Mexico) and eating what they had to give, there were two kinds of grubs which he"could not go." He describes only one: "One is those large army worms with a large horn on their hind end.They get very fat just before they bury up to become a butterfly. They roast them between two ollas, and coverthem with hot coals. They have a beautiful smell as they are very fat when eaten, and there is considerable oilthat comes out of them. But to swallow one I could not. . . ."For miscellaneous "caterpillars," see also Aginsky (1943, food of Central Sierra Indians), Barnett (1937,food of Indians along the Oregon coast), Bean and Theodoratus (1978, food of Western and Northeastern Pomo),Downs (1966, food of the Washo), Driver (1937, food in the southern Sierra Nevada; 1939, food in northwesternCalifornia), Drucker (1937, food of southern California tribes; 1941, food of the Yuman-Piman), Essene (1942,food of Round Valley, California groups), Fladung (1924, as food of Pai-Ute Indians), Fowler (1986, food ofGreat Basin tribes), Gifford (1940, food of the Apache Pueblo groups), Gifford and Kroeber (1937, food of thePomo), Harrington (1942, food of groups along the central California coast), Kelly (1932, food of the SurpriseValley Paiute; 1964, food of Southern Paiute), Landberg (1965, food of the Chumash), Levy (1978b, food of theCastanoan), Merriam (1979, food of Western Mono), Myers (1978, food of the Cahto), Olmsted and Stewart(1978, food of the Achumawi), Powers (1877a, food of California tribes), Steward (1943, food of Northern andGosiute Shoshoni), Stewart (1942, food of Ute-Southern Paiute), and Voegelin (1942, food of the Modoc).Aeshnidae (darners)Aeshna multicolor Hagen, nymphOdonataEbeling (1986: 26) lists the nymph of the common blue darner, Aeshna multicolor, among the insectsused as food by the Indians of the arid regions of the West.Miscellaneous OdonataSee Hrdlicka (1908, food of the Tarahumare).OrthopteraAcrididae (short-horned grasshoppers)Arphia pseudonietana Thomas, adultCamnula pellucida Scudder, adultMelanoplus bivittatus Say, adultMelanoplus devastator Scudder, adultMelanoplus differentialis Thomas, adultMelanoplus femurrubrum DeGeer, adultMelanoplus sanguinipes Fabr. (= M. mexicanus mexicanus Saussure; reported as M. atlanis Riley by Essig1931), adult