Insects as Food in Aotearoa New Zealand

Edible insects have been proposed as a sustainable future protein source for a growing global population. Overseas, interest has seen investment in start-up companies specialising in producing insects for human consumption. Yet little is known of the edible insect species in Aotearoa New Zealand or whether New Zealanders are willing to consume insects. To address this, I investigated the current landscape of edible insects in Aotearoa. I created a catalogue of species with traditional and contemporary uses, the companies that are producing insect-based products and the social and legislative landscape they exist in. I then explored the social licence for insects as food, using a questionnaire to examine the perceptions and experiences of 620 participants, finding an openness to insects as food, influenced by prior experience, knowledge, and a low food neophobia score. However, this was tempered by sentiment analysis showing insect ingredients were viewed more negatively than other food ingredients suggesting an unconscious bias. The huhu beetle, Prionoplus reticularis, was widely listed by participants as an edible insect in Aotearoa, suggesting a potential candidate for future farming. However, surprisingly little is known about the biology of this well-known beetle. To address this, I used GCMS to explore the metabolomic profile of this species along a latitudinal gradient. I found that a random forest model trained on this data was able to predict the geographic location of a larvae with reasonable accuracy, providing a possible tool to detect the provenance of edible insects in the future. I investigated the beetles' scramble competition mating system, and, using static allometry and flight mills, I found evidence of the interplay of sexual selection and stabilising selection on traits associated with male fitness in this species. I also found evidence of sexual dimorphism in the species, indicating the importance of female chemical cues to male mate searching. Using scanning electron microscopy, I investigated the antennal ultrastructure of male and female P. reticularis, describing unique, sexually dimorphic sensilla in this species. This thesis serves as a starting point for the development of edible insects in Aotearoa.