ABSTRACT
Current Address: Primary Industries Research Victoria, Department of Primary Industries, Knoxfield Centre, Private Bag 15, Femtree Gully DC, Victoria,
Australia 3156. E-mail: alan.yen@dpi.vic.gov.au
Abstract Most information on the use of insects as food among the Australian Aborigines consists of a small number of well-known examples such as honey ants, sugarbag bees, witchetty grubs and, to a lesser extent, Bogong moths. The high profile nature of these taxa has masked several aspects about entomophagy in Austra lia: (1) diverse nature of the Australian environment; (2) diverse nature of Ab original cultures; and (3) full extent of entomophagy among Australian Aborigi nes. The issue of entomophagy has been further confused by linguistics, incor rect and often unsubstantiated use of common and scientific names, and lack of taxonomic and life history studies on some of the important food taxa. The im portance of insects varies geographically and Aborigines living in the harsher semiarid and arid regions probably utilized a greater range of invertebrate foods than those with greater access to freshwater and marine resources. These in cluded species of freshwater crustaceans, termites, bugs, grasshoppers and crick ets, beetle larvae, moth larvae and adults, ants, and honey. The importance of invertebrates as food in different parts of Australia was related to the availabil ity of other foods such as plants and mammals, birds, snakes, lizards, and fish.
