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Man Eating Bugs: Australia & Western Samoa

23 images Created 16 Jan 2013

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  • Surveying the outback, Bessie Liddle, an Aboriginal grandmother, searches through the desert for witchetty trees, a type of acacia whose roots may harbor witchetty grubs, the edible larvae of cossid moths; a termite mound in the foreground, outside Alice Springs, Central Australia. (Man Eating Bugs: The Art and Science of Eating Insects)
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  • Kitty Miller, an aboriginal grandmother from the Australian town of Alice Springs, holds witchetty grubs (the larvae of cossid moths) freshly dug from the roots of the witchetty bush in  Australia's outback. To make this photograph Peter Menzel camped for several days with Kitty and a group of women who went in search of witchetty grubs and honey ants. (Man Eating Bugs: The Art and Science of Eating Insects)
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  • Kitty Miller digs around the roots of a witchetty bush for witchetty grubs, a traditional meal of Australia's aboriginal peoples (all but forgotten in the face of modern supermarket foodstuffs) outside Alice Springs in Central Australia. (Witchetty grubs are the larvae of cossid moths). (page 18)
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  • Kitty Miller prepares extracts a Witchetty grub from the root of a Witchetty Bush in the outback outside of Alice Springs in Central Australia. Grubs are high in protein and were a traditional meal of the areas' Aboriginal peoples (all but forgotten in the face of modern supermarket foodstuffs). Witchetty grubs are the larvae of cossid moths. The large white worms live in tunnels in the ground where they feed on sap from the roots of a species of Acacia, commonly known as Wichetty Bush. Image from the book project Man Eating Bugs: The Art and Science of Eating Insects.
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  • A close up image of a Witchetty grub nestled inside the root of a Witchetty Bush in Australia. Witchetty grubs are the larvae of cossid moths. The large white worms live in tunnels in the ground where they feed on sap from the roots of a species of Acacia, commonly known as Wichetty Bush. Photographed in the Australian outback near Alice Springs where they were being dug by Aboriginal women and used for food. Image from the book project Man Eating Bugs: The Art and Science of Eating Insects.
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  • Kitty Miller prepares witchetty grubs by cooking them in the hot ashes at the edge of the campfire outside Alice Springs in Central Australia. Grubs are high in protein and were a traditional meal of the areas' Aboriginal peoples?all but forgotten in the face of modern supermarket foodstuffs. Witchetty grubs are the larvae of cossid moths. The large white worms live in tunnels in the ground where they feed on sap from the roots of a species of Acacia, commonly known as Wichetty Bush. Image from the book project Man Eating Bugs: The Art and Science of Eating Insects.
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  • Pauline Woods cooks witchetty grubs in the ashes of a campfire as her daughter watches, outside Alice Springs, Australia. Witchetty grubs are the larvae of cossid moths. The large white worms live in tunnels in the ground where they feed on sap from the roots of a species of Acacia, commonly known as Wichetty Bush. (Man Eating Bugs: The Art and Science of Eating Insects)
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  • Bessie Liddle savors a roasted witchetty grub for its flavor and its nostalgia (she has not hunted the grubs to the extent she did when she was young, partly due to the proliferation of supermarket foodstuffs and partly due to her age), outside Alice Springs, Central Australia. (Witchetty grubs are the larvae of cossid moths).(Man Eating Bugs page 22)
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  • Witchetty grub dip (made by Vic Chericoff), and sautéed grubs; a live grub crawls through the foreground. Witchetty grubs are the larvae of cossid moths. Sydney, Australia. (Man Eating Bugs: The Art and Science of Eating Insects)
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  • Vic Cherikoff of Sydney, Australia, is owner of Bush Tucker Supply Party Ltd. and a supplier of native foods to Australian restaurants, stores, and on the Internet. He is the creator of a recipe for witchetty grub dip over wattleseed pancakes. (pages 26-27. See also page 22)
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  • Chef Jean-Pierre Rodot at his restaurant, La Cafeterie, with a bowl of witchetty grub soup in Alice Springs, Central Australia. A live witchetty grub (Witchetty grubs are the larvae of cossid moths) floats on top of the soup. Rodot loves witchetty grubs and ate this one alive, savoring its yellow egg-yolk-like guts and declaring them "Delicious!" (pages 4,5. See also page 23).
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  • Jean-Pierre Rodot, part owner and chef of La Cafeterie, eats a live witchetty grub out of a bowl of his special witchetty grub soup, Alice Springs, Central Australia. Witchetty grubs are the larvae of cossid moths. The large white worms live in tunnels in the ground where they feed on sap from the roots of a species of Acacia, commonly known as Wichetty Bush. Image from the book project Man Eating Bugs: The Art and Science of Eating Insects.
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  • Jean-Pierre Rodot, part owner and chef of La Cafeterie, eats a live witchetty grub out of a bowl of his special witchetty grub soup, Alice Springs, Central Australia. (Witchetty grubs are the larvae of cossid moths). (Man Eating Bugs page 23)
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  • The honey of Australian sting-less bees is so thin it pours like wine? the honey, called "sugar bag", is combined with whipped cream and a frozen honeypot replete for a sweet confection, Sydney, Australia. (Man Eating Bugs page 29. See also Man Eating Bugs page 11).
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  • Bessie Liddle reaches for what she calls 'bush coconuts", which are the knobby galls on the branches of the bloodwood tree. These are formed when a light green grub Cystococcus echiniformis burrows under the bark of the tree and secretes an irritating saliva which causes the tree to form a protective gall around the insect in a sort of oyster-and-pearl scenario, north of Alice Springs, Central Australia. (Man Eating Bugs page 25)
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  • The home of a light green grub, Cystococcus echiniformis, is a knobby gall in a bloodwood tree formed when the excreted saliva of the female insect irritates the tree. This causes the tree to form a protective gall around the insect such as an oyster does with a pearl, north of Alice Springs, Central Australia. (Man Eating Bugs page 24)
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  • Hundreds of tiny nymphs (immature insects), Cystococcus echiniformis, fall out from the exposed home of their mother inside a gall in a bloodwood tree; the tiny insects are eaten alive by the hundreds in one ("nutty tasting") mouthful, north of Alice Springs, Central Australia. (Man Eating Bugs page 24)
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  • In Australia arboreal termites are sometimes harvested for food by Aboriginals. Image from the book project Man Eating Bugs: The Art and Science of Eating Insects.
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  • Bessie Liddle proudly displaying a goanna lizard that she has just killed. Bessie later cooked the lizard in the hot sand ashes of a campfire: it tasted like tender pork tenderloin. The goanna ('go-anna') is an Australian reptile that is also known as the monitor lizard. Image from the book project Man Eating Bugs: The Art and Science of Eating Insects.
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  • Vic Cherikoff's "Honey Ant Dreaming" made from frozen replete honey ants (Melophorus bagoti), placed on cream filled chocolate cups, Sydney, Australia. (Man Eating Bugs: The Art and Science of Eating Insects)
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  • Replete honeypot ants hang immobile from the roof of their underground chamber, with loads of delicious sweet nectar stored in their swollen abdominal pouches. North of Alice Springs, Central Australia. (Man Eating Bugs: The Art and Science of Eating Insects)
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  • Man Eatings Bugs cover
  • Western Samoans hunting for palolo reef worms at night near Apia, Western Samoa. The rich taste of palolo is enjoyed raw or fried with butter, onions or eggs, or spread on toast. Palolo is the edible portion of a polychaete worm (Eunice viridis) that lives in shallow coral reefs throughout the south central Pacific. Image from the book project Man Eating Bugs: The Art and Science of Eating Insects.
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Peter Menzel Photography

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