Background: 3,000 years ago, began to eat insects
Lu Yabei introduced, insects are the most diverse biological resources on earth. It is estimated that the world's insect species in more than 1 million species, insects are not only a wide variety of species, but also a huge number of populations, strong reproduction, the body protein content of the insect body is rich in nutrients. Therefore, according to foreign experts, insects are second only to microorganisms and unicellular organisms, "the third largest source of protein.
Don't think that eating insects is a very fashionable thing, in fact, China is one of the earliest countries in the world to utilize edible insects.
It is understood that, according to expert "paper test", China's "edible insects" records were first seen more than 3,000 years ago in the "Zhou Li - Heavenly Officials" and "Rituals - Nei Zi". At that time, it was recorded that three kinds of insects, namely, ants, cicadas and bees, were offered as tributes to the royal family and dignitaries. In the Jin Dynasty, Cui Bao recorded the consumption of mayflies in his Ancient and Modern Annotations. In the Tang Dynasty, Liu Xun recorded the collection and cooking methods of wasps in Lingbiao Luyi, and Wen Tingjun recorded the consumption of tsubaki elephants in Qianzi. By the Yuan Dynasty, "Edible Materia Medica" also has a record of edible silkworm pupae.
Therefore, edible insects have a high value in ancient times, according to incomplete statistics, there were more than 20 kinds of edible insects.
According to statistics, there are 177 species of edible insects in 11 orders and 54 families in China. So far, through nutritional analysis, the world has identified more than 3,650 kinds of insects for food, and more than 370 kinds have been developed. In recent years, Hunan, Yunnan and other places have set off the development and utilization of edible insects boom, and even appeared special "insect feast".
Survey: Jiangsu "edible insects" more than a hundred kinds
The reporter learned that Jiangsu is rich in edible plant and animal species. Years ago, experts began to "edible insects" species statistics for the field collection of specimens research.
And after years of collection and identification, experts have been edible insect specimens of 38 species, but after researching the market and access to a variety of related information, there are another 84 kinds of edible insects in Jiangsu have distribution, so Jiangsu **** 122 kinds of edible insects, belonging to 10 orders of 48 families.
It is said that this "number" is not the final result of the types and number of edible insects are still increasing. Because edible insects as a rich food resources, not only a large number of species, and the number of individuals of the same species is also very amazing. For example, an ant colony can be as large as 50×104 individuals and a tree can have 10×104 individual aphids.
In the statistics, the reporter saw, Jiangsu edible insects are mainly dragonflies, mantis, crickets, butterflies, caterpillars, mosquitoes and flies, ants, bees and so on.
It is worth mentioning that, depending on the species, some insects are edible in their eggs, larvae and adults, that is to say, they are edible throughout their development period. Among them, wasps and ants are the most diverse.
Although there are so many kinds of edible insects in Jiangsu, but people often eat, only Lianyungang people love to eat the pupa of the bean moth, the north of Jiangsu people love to eat the robin, sericulturist often fried silkworm pupae to entertain guests, the Lixiahe area like fried cotton bollworms in oil, most of the other edible insects are not accepted by the people, especially for the insect as a whole as the object of the direct processing of the production of insect products.
Crisis: only to eat without raising will make the decline in resources
Jiangsu has so many insects can eat, but pay attention to, in recent years, the market for edible insect products continue to increase, so the consumption of edible insects increased year by year, and the raw materials of these edible insects basically from the wild resources, which led to a sharp decline in wild resources. Therefore, experts believe that the development and utilization of edible insect resources should be protected as a prerequisite for the development and reproduction of equal importance, can not "only eat without raising".
Experts suggest that bees, silkworms, yellow mealworms and other species that can be artificially reproduced in large quantities can be reproduced in large quantities; for locusts, termites, tennyson, cotton bollworms, pine caterpillars, soybean moths, stem borers and other commonly occurring types of agricultural and forestry pests in Jiangsu Province, edible insects, should be increased to capture efforts to reduce the use of pesticides to protect the environment, and also to make full use of natural resources; For dragonflies, praying mantis, hornets and other natural enemies of edible insects should pay attention to the protective development, can further study its biological characteristics, to artificial methods of natural or artificial feed rearing, the establishment of insect resources research and utilization of the base.
For the existing scale should improve the factory production technology, in order to improve the yield and quality of edible insects, in the protection of biodiversity on the basis of the sustainable use of insects as a resource.