The Witchetty Grub is great bush
food – Australian bush tucker. The Witchetty Grub is the larval
stage (caterpillar) of a wood moth. The grub is large, white, soft and juicy
and is encased in a brown cocoon. Witchettty comes from the word of the
Adnyamathanha people of South Australia’s central desert, the ‘witjuri.’
The larva feeds on the Witchetty
bush, the Acacia kempeana. It can grow to 12 centimetres
(almost 5 inches). The Witchetty Grub, when it is an adult, becomes the wood moth, Endoxyla leucomochla. The moth lives for only a
few days before it breeds and dies.
The Witchetty Grub can be eaten as
they are a rich source of protein. The white grub is gently and briefly heated
in a hot pan or roasted over coals before it is eaten.
The photograph shows a pupa of the
Witchetty Grub which I found in the Tidbinbilla
Nature Reserve, near Canberra, the capital of Australia.
MARTINA
NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and
the author of:- The Shortness of
Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet
(2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).
Comments
Post a Comment