Preliminary Survey on Traditional Knowledge of Consumption of Insect and Laboratory Trials on Rearing Rhynchophorusphoenicis (Fabricius (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) on Locally Sourced Materials

The use of insects as food is not new across many communities in Nigeria and the world at large. Breeding trials are also being carried out to ascertain if some of the candidate insect species can reared to make for easy availability. Entomophagy among the people of Umuokpo Community in Abia State, Nigeria was assessed using Open ended questionnaires administered in the community. A follow up breeding trial was carried out in the Laboratory trial to evaluate different substrates for rearing R. phoenicis. The result from the questionnaire survey revealed a total of six species from three Orders namely; Coleoptera, Lepidoptera and Orthoptera. The Palm weevil had the highest number of respondents (84) making 31.23% of indigents indicating interest in its consumption. This was followed by Winged termite with (71; 26.4%), Cricket (50; 18; 59%), Soldier termite (38; 14.13%) and then Grasshopper and Locust which both recorded (16; 5.59%) and (10;3.72%) respectively. These insect were mostly sourced from the bush/wild. 75% of the respondents regularly consumed insect as a common practice in the community, 21% of the respondents consumed it out of curiosity and 4% of the respondents’ motivation on consumption of insect was out of no money to buy meat or fish. The survival rate of R. phoenicis larva on the different substrates was used as a measure of to ascertain the suitability of this species to any of the substrates. The substrates were made from locally available materials namely Sugarcane, Bread, and Chi-exotic (juice made of pineapple dried ground coconut and plantain flour The result from the rearing attempts was a success with Sugarcane, Bread, Chi-exotic; of the 50 first/second instar larvae harvested, only 15 (3%) were raised to the fifth instar. Also, out of 26 second/third instar, larvae harvested only 5 were successfully raised to adult; males and females. This shows 3% and 9.23% survival rate. The adults raised from the substrates when allowed to mate laid eggs that hatched out first instar larva.