Coridius insperatus, Coridius adii and Coridius esculentus. Photo: Special Arrangement
A team of entomologists have discovered three new edible insect species from Arunachal Pradesh. Belonging to the genus Coridius of family Dinidoridae (Hemiptera), these stink bugs have been named Coridius adii, Coridius insperatus and Coridius esculentus.
The discovery was made by researchers Priyadarsanan Dharma Rajan, Swapnil Boyane, Sandeep Sen and Pavan Kumar Thunga from Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE) in Bengaluru and Hemant Ghate from Modern College, Pune. Their work has been published in the peer-reviewed open-access journal PLOS One.
Coridius adii is named in honour of the Adi tribe, one of the major groups inhabiting mainly the Siang valley in Arunchal Pradesh, which consumes this species as food. The insect is described as pale brown to dark brown with irregular yellow patches on its upper body.
According to the researchers, Coridius insperatus is distinct from all other species in the group. It has four segmented antennae and a copper-coloured back, while other similar bugs have five segmented antennae and are dark brown, yellow, or black on top. Coridius esculentus was discovered during a socio-economic survey when researchers observed that while the bugs are popular delicacies, consuming the darker-coloured insect in large quantities causes intoxication. Those consuming Coridius esculentus become “photophobic, exhibiting behaviour such as wanting to hide under carpets or beds,” the researchers say.
Coridius bugs are relatively large, ranging from 15 to 25 cm in size and mainly feed on plant sap. The study also rediscovered Coridius fuscus, Coridius laosanus, and Coridius assamensis, which were not reported for over 100 years from the region.
“Entomophagy, or the practice of eating insects, is an age-old tradition that is widely practised in Northeast India, where many communities rely on insects as a source of food, nutrition, and medicine. Our findings are significant, as they have important implications for public health and conservation,” says Mr. Rajan, one of the authors of the paper, while calling to protect the “rich indigenous traditional knowledge system” of the Northeast region.
With the discovery of three new species, the researchers suggest there are likely many more species yet to be described from the region, opening new avenues for scientific exploration and conservation efforts.
The research was supported by the Department of Biotechnology as part of a project documenting the bioresources of northeast India.
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