Even Omnivoures Would Sing The Blues......

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Augustin de Saint-Hilaire (1779-1853) travelled extensively in

eastern

Brazil between 1816 and 1823 and after his return to France published

valuable observations on the geography, ethnology and natural history

of the

country. In two of his unpublished works Saint-Hilaire (1824,

republished

Jenkins, 1946, p. 49; 1830, pp. 432-433) described the use of an

insect as

food and medicine by the Malalis, natives in the Brazilian province

of Minas

Gerais.

The relevant passage (1824) (translated) is as follows:

 

When I was among the Malalis, in the province of Mines, they spoke

much of a grub

which they regarded as a delicious food, and which is called bicho de

tacuara (bamboo-

worm), because it is found in the stems of bamboos, but only when

these bear flowers.

Some Portugese who have lived among the Indians value these worms no

less than the

natives themselves; they melt them on the fire, forming them into an

oily mass, and

so preserve them for use in the preparation of food. The Malalis

consider the head of

the bicho de tacuara as a dangerous poison; but all agree in saying

that this creature,

dried and reduced to powder constitutes a powerful vulnerary (for the

healing of

wounds). If one is to believe these Indians and the Portugese

themselves it is not only

for this use that the former preserve the bicho de tacuara . When

strong emotion makes

them sleepless, they swallow, they say, one of these worms dried,

without the head

but with the intestinal tube; and then they fall into a kind of

ecstatic sleep, which often

lasts more than a day, and similar to that experienced by the

Orientals when they take

opium in excess. They tell, on awakening, of marvellous dreams; they

saw splendid

forests, they ate delicious fruits, they killed without difficulty

the most choice game;

but these Malalis add that they take care to indulge only rarely in

this debilitating

kind of pleasure. I saw them only with the bicho de tacuara dried and

without heads;

but during a botanical trip that I made to Saint-Francois with my

Botocudo, this

young man found a great many of these grubs in flowering bamboos, and

set about

eating them in my presence. He broke open the creature and carefully

removed the

head and intestinal tube, and sucked out the soft whitish substance

which re-

mained in the skin. In spite of my repugnance, I followed the example

of the young

savage, and found, in this strange food, an extremely agreeable

flavour which recalled

that of the most delicate cream.

If then, as I can hardly doubt, the account of the Malalis is

true, the narcotic

property of the bicho de tacuara resides solely in the intestinal

tube, since the sur-

rounding fat produces no ill effect. Be that as it may, I submitted

to M. Latreille the

description of the animal I had made, and this learned entomologist

recognised

it as a caterpillar probably belonging to the genus 'Cossus' or to

the genus 'Hepiale'.

 

These observations are repeated in Saint-Hilaire (1839, pp.

432-433) with

the addition of the information that the " bicho de taquara " are half

as long

as the index finger.

The intoxicating effect of the larvae from bamboo has

apparently been

forgotten in Brazil and the seven volume Handbook of South American

Indians (Steward, 1946-1959) while referring briefly to the

observation of

Saint-Hilaire in Vol. 5 (p. 557) gives no additional references. This

is perhaps

not surprising as the Malalis were a near-coastal tribe long ago

overrun by the

advance of civilisation. The name " bicho de taquara " is, however,

still in use

and according to Ihering (1932, p. 236) and Costa Lima (1936, p. 266;

1967, p. 246) refers to the larva of the moth Myelobia (Morpheis)

smerintha

Huebner (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae : Crambinae).

Costa Lima (1967, p. 246) states that the larvae feed in common

bamboos

including Nastes (=Nastus) barbatus Trin., " taquara lixa "

(Merostachys

Rideliana Rupr.), " taquara poca " (Merostachys Neesii Rupr.)

and " taquaras-

su " (Guadua sp.) (Hoehne, F.C. et al.). The larvae feed inside the

internodes

of the bamboo and attain a maximum length of about 10 cm. The moth

emerges in September and has frequently appeared in plague

proportions.

There are 24 species of Myelobia in South America, one in Mexico and

one

in Guatemala. The statement by Saint-Hilaire that the larvae are only

found

when the bamboo is in flower probably means that the host bamboos

flower

annually (as do a number of Brazilian species) and it is at that time

that the

larvae reach their maximum size. As the adult moth emerges in

September

this is probably in July or August.

It appears from the observations of Saint-Hilaire that the active

substance

is not destroyed by drying, and the need to remove the head and gut

to

avoid intoxication suggests that it is contained in the salivary

glands. The

active material could therefore be concentrated initially by removing

the

head plus salivary glands and part of the gut, discarding the rest of

the body.

In view of the interest in the pharmacology of hallucinogens and

the

medicinal use of the dried and powdered larvae it would seem to be

woth-

while to investigate what appears to be a new source, and as the

insect is

large and common it would be well suited to biochemical study. It is

of

particular interest that this would be the first hallucinogen of

insect origin.

 

 

References

Costa Lima, A.M. da (1936) Terceir Catalogo do Insetos qui vivem nas

plantas da Brasil,

Directoria de Estatistica da Producao, Rio de Janeiro.

Costa Lima, A.M. da (1967) Quarto catalogo dos insetos qui vivem nas

plantos de Brasil;

seus parasitos e predatores. Rio de Janeiro, Ministerio de

Agricultura, Departamento

de Defesa e Inspecas Agropecuaria, Servico de Defesa Sanitaria

Vegetal, Laboratorio

Centralde Patolgia Vegetal.

Ihering, R. von (1917) Observacoes sobre a mariposa Myelobia

smerintha Hubn. em S.

Paulo. Physis (Buenos Aires) 3, 60-68.

Ihering, R. von (1968) Diccionario dos Animaes do Brasil, Sao Paulo,

Editora Universi-

dade Brasilia, pp. 147-148.

Jenkins, Anna (Ed.) (1946) Chronica Botanica 10, 24-61 (a reprint of

Saint-Hilaire,

1824).

Saint-Hilaire, Augustin F.C.P. de (1824) Histoire du Plantes les plus

remarquables du

Bresil et du Paraguay.

Saint-Hilaire, Augustin F.C.P. de (1830) Voyages dans l'interieur du

Bresil - Premiere

Partie. Voyage dans les provinces de Rio de Janiero et de

Minas Gerais, Paris.

Steward, Julian H. (Ed.) (1946-1959) Handbook of South American

Indians, 7 Vols.

Vol. 5. The Comparitive Ethnology of South American Indians

Prepared in coopera-

tion with the U.S. Dept. of State as a project of the

Interdepartmental Committe

on Scientific and Cultural Cooperation. U.S. Govt. Printing

Office, Washington.

 

............bob