Journal of Ethnopharmacology, 12
(1984) 331-333
Elsevier Scientific Publishers
Ireland Ltd
Short Communication
E.B. Britton
27 Galway Place, Deakin, Canberra ACT 2600 (Australia)
(Accepted August 28, 1984)
The purpose of this note is to draw attention to a long
forgotten observa-
tion which points to the existence of a new hallucinogen,
unique in that its
source is an insect.
Augustin de
Saint-Hilaire (1779-1853) travelled extensively in eastern
Brazil between
1816 and 1823 and after his return to France published
valuable observations
on the geography, ethnology and natural history of the
country. In two of
his unpublished works Saint-Hilaire (1824, republished
Jenkins, 1946, p. 49;
1830, pp. 432-433) described the use of an insect as
food and medicine by
the Malalis, natives in the Brazilian province of Minas
Gerais.
The relevant passage (1824) (translated) is as
follows:
When I was among the Malalis, in the province of Mines, they
spoke much of a grub
which they regarded as a delicious
food, and which is called bicho de tacuara (bamboo-
worm), because it is found in the stems of bamboos, but only when these
bear flowers.
Some Portugese who have lived among the
Indians value these worms no less than the
natives
themselves; they melt them on the fire, forming them into an oily mass,
and
so preserve them for use in the preparation of
food. The Malalis consider the head of
the bicho de
tacuara as a dangerous poison; but all agree in saying that this
creature,
dried and reduced to powder constitutes a
powerful vulnerary (for the healing of
wounds). If one
is to believe these Indians and the Portugese themselves it is not only
for this use that the former preserve the bicho de
tacuara . When strong emotion makes
them sleepless,
they swallow, they say, one of these worms dried, without the head
but with the intestinal tube; and then they fall into a kind
of ecstatic sleep, which often
lasts more than a day,
and similar to that experienced by the Orientals when they take
opium in excess. They tell, on awakening, of marvellous dreams; they saw
splendid
forests, they ate delicious fruits, they
killed without difficulty the most choice game;
but
these Malalis add that they take care to indulge only rarely in this
debilitating
kind of pleasure. I saw them only with the
bicho de tacuara dried and without heads;
but
during a botanical trip that I made to Saint-Francois with my Botocudo,
this
young man found a great many of these grubs in
flowering bamboos, and set about
eating them in my
presence. He broke open the creature and carefully removed the
head and intestinal tube, and sucked out the soft whitish substance
which re-
mained in the skin. In spite of my
repugnance, I followed the example of the young
savage,
and found, in this strange food, an extremely agreeable flavour which
recalled
that of the most delicate cream.
If then, as I can hardly doubt,
the account of the Malalis is true, the narcotic
property of the bicho de tacuara resides solely in the
intestinal tube, since the sur-
rounding fat produces
no ill effect. Be that as it may, I submitted to M. Latreille the
description of the animal I had made, and this learned
entomologist recognised
it as a caterpillar probably
belonging to the genus 'Cossus' or to the genus 'Hepiale'.
These observations
are repeated in Saint-Hilaire (1839, pp. 432-433) with
the addition of the
information that the "bicho de taquara" are half as long
as the index
finger.
The intoxicating
effect of the larvae from bamboo has apparently been
forgotten in Brazil and
the seven volume Handbook of South American
Indians (Steward, 1946-1959)
while referring briefly to the observation of
Saint-Hilaire in Vol. 5 (p.
557) gives no additional references. This is perhaps
not surprising as the
Malalis were a near-coastal tribe long ago overrun by the
advance of
civilisation. The name "bicho de taquara" is, however, still in use
and
according to Ihering (1932, p. 236) and Costa Lima (1936, p. 266;
1967, p.
246) refers to the larva of the moth Myelobia (Morpheis) smerintha
Huebner (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae : Crambinae).
Costa Lima (1967, p. 246) states that the larvae feed in common bamboos
including Nastes (=Nastus) barbatus Trin., "taquara lixa"
(Merostachys
Rideliana Rupr.), "taquara poca"
(Merostachys Neesii Rupr.) and "taquaras-
su" (Guadua sp.) (Hoehne,
F.C. et al.). The larvae feed inside the internodes
of the bamboo and attain
a maximum length of about 10 cm. The moth
emerges in September and has
frequently appeared in plague proportions.
There are 24 species of
Myelobia in South America, one in Mexico and one
in Guatemala. The
statement by Saint-Hilaire that the larvae are only found
when the bamboo is
in flower probably means that the host bamboos flower
annually (as do a
number of Brazilian species) and it is at that time that the
larvae reach
their maximum size. As the adult moth emerges in September
this is probably
in July or August.
It appears from the observations of
Saint-Hilaire that the active substance
is not destroyed by drying, and the
need to remove the head and gut to
avoid intoxication suggests that it is
contained in the salivary glands. The
active material could therefore be
concentrated initially by removing the
head plus salivary glands and part of
the gut, discarding the rest of the body.
In view of the
interest in the pharmacology of hallucinogens and the
medicinal use of the
dried and powdered larvae it would seem to be woth-
while to investigate
what appears to be a new source, and as the insect is
large and common it
would be well suited to biochemical study. It is of
particular interest that
this would be the first hallucinogen of insect origin.
