Contents - LAC Biosafety

70 Ecology of insects in the forest environment
Fig. 3.5 Vertical section (diagrammatic) through dung pat, tunnel and brood chamber
of the elephant dung beetle Heliocopris dominus. From Entomon (Joseph, 1998).
Some species of scarabaeid beetles, known as carrion beetles (e.g. some
Onthophagus spp.), as well as some staphylinid beetles feed on carrion as do many
species of the dipteran families Calliphoridae (flesh-flies), Muscidae and
Phoridae. Several species of the beetle family Dermestidae (e.g. Dermestes vulpinus,
Anthrenus flavipes) feed on dry meat, hide, skin, hoof, horn, hair, wool etc. and
cause their decomposition.
3.2.4 Insects as food
While many insects form the food of other insects, insects also
serve as food for a wide variety of other animals – amphibians, reptiles, birds
and mammals. Because of their large number and variety, insects constitute
a quantitatively important link in the food chain. In some countries, insects
form part of the human diet also. In addition to honey from honeybees which is
a prized food item worldwide, many kinds of insects like locusts, grasshoppers,
termites and lepidopteran larvae and pupae form part of the human diet,
particularly for tribal people. In Nigeria the larvae of Anaphe venata (Lepidoptera:
Notodontidae), a defoliator of Triplochiton scleroxylon in the high forests, are
roasted in dry sand and eaten by local tribes (Ashiru, 1988, cited by Wagner
et al., 1991) and in Uganda the grasshopper Homorocoryphus nitidulus
which periodically swarms in large numbers is eaten either raw or cooked