uses of insects, apiculture, lac culture, sericulture, insect dyes, aesthetic values of insects, insects as food, insects as medicine and research, uses of medicinal insects, butterfly parks,

1. INSECT
- a marketable communality
K.V. NAGARJUNA REDDY
Ph.D scholar
IGKV, Raipur

2. • Most successful groups of animals.
• Approximately, 59353 species of insects occur in India
• Depending upon the diversity, the are also vast and
diverse.
• Insects - provide constant services to the mankind
Background of Insect Resources

3. On the basis of their utility
1) Industrial resources
2) Edible and therapeutic purposes
3) Ecological importance

4. Insects of Industrial Resources
• Sericulture and allied purpose
• Apiculture and allied purpose
• Lac culture.
• Natural dye from insect.
• Insect trade for aesthetic purpose

5. Sericulture and Allied Purpose
• The natural fiber silk is the product of insects
• Four commercially traded varieties of natural
silks - Mulberry, Tasar, Muga and Eri.
• India - second largest producer and largest
consumer

6. Uses of silk

7. Other by products from sericulture

8. • Human consumption.
• Sericin
• Silk sutures

10. Apiculture and Allied Purposes
• Promising profitable venture.
• Important ancillary activity in agriculture - provides
nutritional and economic security to rural communities.
• Double advantage - honey production
-increase crop yield

11. • Honey
• Bees wax
• Bee venom
• Propolis
• Royal jelly
• Pollen
BEE PRODUCTS

14. Commodity Price
Raw honey Rs. 90 to Rs 100 per kg
Processed honey Rs. 250 to Rs 300 per kg
Bee pollen Rs 2000 to 20000 per kg
Bees wax Rs 400-700 per kg
Royal jelly Rs 25,000 per kg
Bee venom Rs 1000 per g
Propolis Rs 500 per kg
Stingless bee’s honey Rs.2000 to 3000 per kg
Source : Schemes and guidelines, Khadi and Village Industries Commission, 2018
Report of Bee keeping development committee, June 2019

16. Lac culture

17. • Kerria lacca (Kerriidae, Hemiptera)
• Natural commercial resin of animal origin
• Resinous substance secreted by certain glands present
on the lac insects
• Versatile product - demand for in many industries
provides economic resources that filter down to rural
tribes

21. Natural Dye from Insects
• Coccid, Dactylopius coccus
(Hemiptera: Dactylopiidae) -
used for the extraction of carmine
acid
• Natural red dye - food,
pharmaceutical, and cosmetic
industries.
• Residuals - used to enrich
food for avian species or to
prepare fertilizers

23. • Cynips gallae tinctoriae (Cynipidae; Hymenoptera)
• Commercial source of tannic acid
• Principal ingredient in wool dyes and
black hair colourants
• Leather industry and manufacturing
of inks
• Exploring as well as utilizing natural
dye producing insects is quite virgin
in the India

24. Insect Trade for Aesthetic Purposes
• We are attracted by the body colouration, beauty and
mode of life of the insects.
• Coloured wing and elytra of many coleopterans are used
in jewellery, embroidery, pottery, and basket makings.
• Butterfly - maximum attention from museums and
collectors - valued items in market

25. • Growing need of butterfly amongst the
collectors - butterfly farms in European
countries

29. Insect tea
• Made from leaves bitten by, and the droppings of,
insects fed on specific plants.
TEA INSECT HOST
Dongfang
meiren
Jacobiasca formosana
leafhoppers
Camellia sinensis
Sanye Aglossa dimidiatus moth Malus sieboldii,
crabapple tree
Huaxiang Hydrillodes repugnalis Platycarya
strobilacea,
walnut-related tree
Pyralis farinalis Litsea coreana, laurel
tree
Andraca theae Camellia sinensis

31. • Since the 2000s, drinks purporting to be Sanye tea
have been marketed especially in the West as
a dietary supplement with weight-loss, laxative,
and detoxification claims.

32. Edible and Therapeutic Insects
• Over 1,500 species of edible insects - 300 ethnic
groups - 113 countries
• Commonly eaten species of insects include grasshoppers,
crickets, termites, ants, beetle larvae, moth caterpillars,
and pupae

34. Common name Edible form
Diving beetle Roasted, fried and curry forms of larva and adult
Water scavengers Roasted, fried and curry forms of larva and adult
Asian long horned beetle Fried larva
Dragonflies
Nymph are eaten in roasted or fried forms, prepared
dishes by crushing with chilly and other spices
Mole-cricket Roasted or fried body
Giant water bug Roasted or fried body with edible herbs or spices
Nepa Fried body
Grasshopper Steamed, fried and mixed with edible herbs
Ants
Grinding dried ants and eggs with edible herbs and
spices
Termites Roasted and curry forms of winged adults.
(Source : Article in Psyche A Journal of Entomology July 2010)

38. Insects of Ecological Importance

39. Pollination services

40. Biological Control Agents

41. Some commercially available biocontrol agents in India
BIOCONTROL AGENT TARGET PEST
Trichogramma japonicum Top shoot borer of sugarcane , Paddy stem borer
Trichogramma chilonis Sugarcane borers, Cotton bollworms, Maize stem borer
Cryptolaemus montrouzieri Mealy bugs
Coccinella septempunctata Aphids
Cheilomenes sexmaculata Aphids, psyllids, whiteflies, mealybugs, mites, leaf hoppers
Chrysoperla carnea Sucking pests on cotton, tobacco, sunflower, groundnut
some fruit crops
Goniozus nephantidis Coconut blackheaded caterpillar
Bracon brevicornis Coconut blackheaded caterpillar, Maize stem borer
Cotton bollworms
Dipha aphidivora Bamboo aphids, sugarcane woolly aphid
Zygogramma bicolorata Parthenium
Neochetina bruchi Water hyacinth

42. Insects in Biomass Recycling
• Use of black soldier fly larvae to recycle
organic wastes, specifically human waste, to
produce protein and fat as a useful byproduct

43. • Insect biomass conversion, or insect farming in
short, is when insects turn organic wastes into
highly nutritious outputs, like proteins and
other nutrients.
• They are incredibly efficient at converting
what they eat into their own biomass – which
makes them excellent food & other wastes
recyclers.

47. • Biodiesel - alternative diesel- fuel high cost of production –
limited economic feasibility.
• BSF larva reared on SRF - non-food feedstock for biodiesel
production.
• Fuel properties of larval grease-based biodiesel met European
standard EN 14214.
( source : Renewable Energy Volume 41, May 2012, Pages 75-79)

48. Insects in Medicine and Research

49. Maggot therapy
Allantoin
Urea
Phenylacetic acid
Phenylacetaldehyde
Calcium carbonate
Proteolytic enzymes

51. Apitherapy
• Bee venom peptide – Melittin
• Treat inflammation of rheumatoid arthritis and multiple
sclerosis

52. Blister beetle
• Cantharidin
• Medical use -description -
Hippocrates (460–377 BC)
• Diuretic - alleviate epilepsy,
asthma, rabies, and sterility
• a toxic blistering agent –
used as an aphrodisiac.

54. • Drosophila melanogaster .
• Cabbage butterfly, Pieris rapae, P. brassicae, P. napi
• Trichoplusia ni and Silkworm B. mori
• Periplaneta americana
Biological Research

55. Future perspectives
• Insects - potentially more efficient source for mankind
• Need to link the potential of this bio-resources to
economic prosperity.
• Establishing mass breeding insectaries or
biotechnological intervention to provide a hope for
golden aspects for income generation too.

56. • Scientific validation and updating of traditional
wisdom.
• More and more analysis of insect biodiversity and their
industrialization.
• High time that researchers recognize the manifold
utilities of insects and begin to build on it.