Insects are the dominant organisms on Earth, with three times the biomass of humans and too many species to be fully counted.
There are many kinds of insects, most of which are not recognized by the public, but there are also many insects that are closely related to our lives, raised by us, and even walked on our tables.....
Today, we will take a look at several types of insects raised by humans.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > economic insects that produce benefits</h1>
Economic insects refer to the insect class is closely related to human economic interests of species, human beings have long begun to use insects to produce economic benefits, of which the most familiar and intimate is probably silkworms and bees.
Artificially fed silkworms
There is evidence that China has been raising silkworms more than 5,000 years ago, and 3,000 years ago, there was experience in artificial breeding of silkworms with mulberry leaves in China, and silkworm farming has become an industry.
Beekeepers and bees
According to some data, during the Eastern Han Dynasty 2,000 years ago, China has begun to raise bees in captivity.
In fact, in addition to bees and silkworms, there are many economic insects in modern society that have been used by humans for a long time, and cochineal worms are one of them.
>>>> cochineal worms
Cochineal is a common name for some insects in the cochinaceae family, native to tropical and subtropical regions of the Americas, including Mexico and the southern United States, and was known for the "Starbucks pest colorant" event in the first two years.
Cochineal worms are oviparous insects, very small, the female adult is about 3 mm long, and the male adult is less than 2.8 mm long.
Although the size of the female and male insects does not look very different, the mobility is very different:
Males have wings, well-developed feet and antennae, and can fly; females have no wings and cannot fly, but can only parasitize motionlessly on cacti and live by sucking the juice of cacti.
Cochineal eggs are pale red, have a smooth surface, and hatch within 30 minutes of laying eggs.
The newly hatched female nymphs are bright red, have antennae and feet, and are lively and active; after 2 days, they settle down and begin to collect wax in large quantities.
The second-instar female nymph is dark red, her body is covered in wax powder, and she has lost its antennae and feet, so it is incapacitated.
Female adults are ovate or spherical in shape, appear fleshy, and after waxing, the worm's body is purple-red.
Cochineal larvae wrapped in wax powder
After waxing, the worm body is purple-red
So how do cochineals generate economic value?
One of the special features of the female cochineal worm is that when it is squeezed, it produces a red liquid, which is not her blood, but a bright red carmine acid secreted by stress.
Annatto acid is a natural pigment of the anthraquinone type, which is extremely suitable for dyeing and can be used for coloring food, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, textiles, which makes cochineal insects are reared in large quantities.
>>>> yellow mealworm
Many insects, like cochineals, can directly generate economic benefits, and some insects can indirectly generate economic value, such as mealworms.
When it comes to Tenebrio molitor, many people are not familiar with the name, but when it comes to breadworms, everyone must know it.
The larvae of the yellow mealworm are the famous bread worms, which have been cultivated abroad for more than 100 years. It can be used as live insect feed to feed a large number of farmed chickens, ducks, shrimp, etc.
Mealworm belongs to the genus Powderyx of the Coleoptera family, which is distributed all over the world, and is a fully metamorphosed insect that undergoes four stages in its life: egg, larvae, pupae, and adult.
The body of the larvae is long, about 30 mm long, golden yellow, and has long legs, with yellow-brown rings at the junctions of the body segments.
Adult and larvae of mealworm are very different in appearance, with a body length of about 15 mm and a dark brown lustrous color.
Mealworm adults
Mealworm is rich in protein, with larval protein content accounting for 50.95% of dry weight; adult protein content accounting for 63.74% of dry weight; pupa protein content accounting for 56.96% of dry weight, which is a precious resource insect.
In addition to being used as feed, mealworms can be eaten and biodegraded, and there are even many people at home and abroad who are studying the use of mealworms to extract edible oil.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > edible insects on the table</h1>
Although some people can not accept eating insects, but eating insects has long been a common thing, our table often appears on the eating insects are crickets, sandworms, locusts, zhi, bamboo insects and so on.
People in The Yunnan region of China especially like to eat various insects. There are also many people around the world who eat insects, and a report released by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in 2015 pointed out that there are 2 billion people in the world who eat insects.
>>>> crickets and locusts
Crickets are familiar to everyone, and although our impression of it is more "fighting cockroach", crickets have long become a street food in many countries.
cricket
Some countries even have cricket cream soup with pancakes, cricket salad, cricket beer and other dishes and wines, as well as cricket powder biscuits and other processed products, in China, there are also many cricket breeding incubation bases.
Locusts, like crickets, belong to the order Orthoptera, and they are of many species and are widely distributed around the world.
They can be found in plains, farmland, meadows, hills, barren slopes, mountains, and grasses.
In China, locusts as food often appear on food stalls, and the general practice is to fry or skewer them and bake them.
>>>>竹虫
Bamboo worms are a favorite dish of ethnic minorities such as the Dai and Hani ethnic groups, and Southeast Asian countries such as Thailand often use bamboo worms as a large dish to entertain guests.
Bamboo insects, scientifically known as chilo fuscidentalis, are insects of the genus Grass borer in the family Mothaceae that live in flocks in bamboos of the genus Macrophyllaceae.
We eat the larvae of bamboo worms, the body of the larva is white, about 3 cm long, shaped like a cordyceps, with thin eyes and small black mouths.
Bamboo worms are very simple, fried in oil or fried, the taste is crisp, and sprinkled with a little pepper and salt is very delicious.
According to the Statistics of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, there are more than 1900 species of insects in the world that can be eaten by humans, and the larvae of silkworms, bees and mealworms we introduced earlier can be eaten.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > pet insects that accompany us</h1>
In fact, there are some insects that can be mixed with the pet world, not only children, pet insects are also the favorite of many big friends, such as the grasshoppers that we are all familiar with.
>>>>蝈蝈
In China, the grasshopper is a class of insects with a long history of breeding, it belongs to the genus of grasshoppers, the most common species are elegant grasshoppers, dark brown grasshoppers and so on.
They have wings but cannot fly because their hindwings are degenerate and the remaining forewings are too small to support flight.
We all know that grasshoppers, like the crickets introduced earlier, are males who are good at singing and have very loud voices, but unlike what we think, grasshoppers actually have no vocal cords, they use the sound files and scrapers on their short wings to rub against each other to make a sound.
The feeding method of grasshoppers is not complicated, they are raised in a ventilated environment of 20%-30% humidity and 22 °C-30 °C, and they can be fed some fruits, vegetables and other vegetarian foods every day, as well as fish feed, bread worms and other meat.
Elegant grasshoppers
In addition to grasshoppers, pet beetles, praying mantises, butterflies, stick insects, bug hunting, silkworms, etc. are often found as pet insects.
However, it should be noted that not all insects can be raised, and in some countries and regions (including China), raising certain insects is illegal and extremely dangerous.
For example, some highly toxic insects, wild and national protected insects, can not be caught as pets, breeding pet insects must choose some artificial breeding species.
In addition, insects can not eat indiscriminately, some insects themselves contain toxins, some insects are likely to carry germs or parasites because they grow in the wild, and they should not be eaten at will.
If you want to eat an insect feast, it is recommended that you eat captive insects!