Musings
Catching and Eating Dragonflies
in Bali and Elsewhere in Asia
F
LYINGAROUND BALI'S PICTURESQUE TER-
aced rice paddies are many dragonflies, which Mexican anthropologist
Miguel Covarrubias (1937) reported were
captured and eaten by the Balinese. During a
December 1993 trip to Bali, I sought to learn
if dragonflies still were used as human food.
My informants were English-speaking tourist
bungalow and restaurant owners and staff in
Ubud, in central Bali, on the northern coast
west of Singaraja. These people not only graciously shared their knowledge, but showed
me how the dragonflies, which they call
"chapung," are captured and eaten.
Dragonflies are eaten widely still, but
their abundance apparently has been reduced
by pesticides. Adults of all dragonflies and
damselflies are sought but larger species are
more desired. Dragonflies, which are notoriously difficult to catch, are captured by a variety of techniques, including a number that
use the sticky latex of the jackfruit tree, Artocarpus heterophyllus Lamarck, and, less commonly, the less-sticky latex of frangipani,
P/umeria sp. In one method, latex is applied
to the end of a slender stick or to a small, slender piece of bamboo tied to a longer stick.
This method is used to capture dragonflies
resting on low vegetation. The dragonfly is
stalked, and the sticky tip of the stick is lowered slowly until it is just above the insect's
dorsum. A quick tap and the dragonfly is captured. Another technique uses the" ngoneng,"
which is a stick about half a meter long. A
stiff wire or reed of similar length is tied to one
end of this stick. A spherical globule of latex
is molded on the free distal tip of the wire or
reed. To catch dragonflies with the ngoneng,
one stands where dragonflies are flying or
AMPRICAN ENTOMOLOGIST
• SlIIllmer
1995
perched and whirls the latex sphere around in
a circular motion. Dragonflies dart at the
sphere and become stuck to it. The Balinese
think the dragonfly is trying to catch the
sphere as if it were prey, which may be the
case. Covarrubias (1937) reported that children caught dragonflies by holding latex
tipped poles higher than the places where
dragonflies were perched. This induced the
"rank conscious" dragonflies to fly up and
land on the tip of the poles, where they became stuck.
Dragonflies are captured by hand also.
After locating a dragonfly resting on low
growing shrubs, the hunter creeps upon it
from below and behind and slowly moves an
open hand toward the dragonfly's abdomen.
When very close, the abdomen is quickly
pinched to make the catch. One hunter I saw
would rapidly swing his cupped hand at a
dragonfly to sweep it from its perch and enclose it in his hand. Captured dragonflies were
placed in leaves, plastic bags, or cigarette
wrappers. This method of capture was the
most productive technique I saw.
The most common large dragonflies
around Balinese rice fields are species of Anax
(Aesnidae), Crocothemis (Libellulidae), and
Neurothemis (Libellulidae) (Sid Dunkle; personal communication). These are probably
the dragonflies most commonly used as food
because larger species are preferred. Unfortunately, the dragonflies that I saw captured can
not be identified because all were eaten, including the would-be voucher specimens.
Before the dragonflies are cooked, the latex trapping material, if used, is removed by
dissolving it with cooking oils. Wings are removed when the specimen is captured or be-
ROBERT
W. PEMBERTON
97
Japanese family crest showing
dragonflies. This crest is for the
Kaneko, a samurai family from
the rice-growing Musashi Plain
near to Tokyo.
98
fore it is cooked, unless it is charcoal roasted.
In this case, the wings are not removed and
are crispened during cooking.
I learned about several cooking preparations. A wet cooking method involves combining the dragonflies with ginger, garlic,
shallots, and chili pepper in coconut milk and
boiling the mixture for 5-10 minutes. A drycooking method combines the same ingredients with fresh coconut meat, rather than
milk, in a banana leaf that was then either
steamed or roasted on charcoal. A simpler
method was to place the dragonflies directly
on the grate of a charcoal grill, without seasoning. Usually a minimum of about 20 dragonflies are needed for cooking. I tried the
grilled dragonflies, which had a carbonized
crispy quality with a subtle, fat flavor.
Nymphs are occasionally captured by hand,
but are not used as commonly because they
are less obvious to the Balinese than adults.
Nymphs are cooked with the same methods as
adults and are supposed to taste better because they are softer.
Dragonflies also are llsed as food in other
parts of Asia. Bodenheimer (1951) reported
their use in some areas of China, japan, and
Laos. In Laos, adults of the preferred species,
Anax guttatus Burmeister, are captured by
placing a lighted candle in the middle of a big
bowl of water. They are attracted to the candle, singe their wings, fall into the bowl of
water, and are roasted. Nymphs of an unspecified, fat-bodied species also are consumed;
they taste like crayfish when cooked. Remington (1946) mentioned that, in Japan, odonate
nymphs were captured and eaten unsorted
with other aquatic insects. Mitsuhashi (1984)
reported tbeJapanese use, in 1919, of dragonflies as food in five prefectures and as medicine in sixteen prefectures. Hatto (1994)
describes a traditional Japanese dragonfly
catching technique called "buri" or "toriko."
A 60-80 em thread, with a cloth (usually red)
wrapped weight (usually a small pebble or
metal ball approximately 0.5 cm in diameter)
on each end, is thrown straight up in the air in
an area where large dragonflies are active. A
dragonfly will attack the cloth-wrapped
weight, grasp it with its legs, and, subsequently, become entangled by the thread and fall to
the ground. Sid Dunkle (personal communication) observed a demonstration of this technique during a gathering of odonate specialists in japan in 1993 and reported that about
one in twenty tosses was successful. Nan- Yao
Su, my colleague at the University of Florida
Research and Education Center, Davie,
caught and ate dragonflies as a boy in Taiwan
during the 1950s. He and his friends would tie
together the fingerlike divisions (the rachilla)
of the flower or seed heads of grasses and
fashion dragonfly decoys. The decoys would
be waved at dragonflies, which would attack
the "intruders," only to be grabbed by the
quick-handed boys, who then would roast
and eat them.
Goen Hyoung Lee (personal communication) captured dragonflies as a child in South
Korea during the 1960s. A perched dragonfly
would be approached slowly, while an index
finger was twirled to outline a smaIl1-3-inch
circle in front of the dragonfly. This appeared
to hypnotize the specimen. When close, he
would reach his free hand behind the dragonfly, pinch its abdomen, and capture it. A
length of thread was tied to the abdomen near
the tip and served as a tether for a flying toy.
Another capture method used by Lee, which
also was used in japan, employed a spider
web net (Culin 1895). A branch or wire was
fashinioned into a hoop that was swept
through several vertical webs of orb weaving
spiders to catch the webs in the hoop. The
resulting flat, sticky, net was used to capture
resting dragonflies. In japan, red dragonflies
that appeared during the August Bon festival
were not captured by some people because of
AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST
•
Summer 1995
their belief that the spirits of the dead returning for the festival rode on the backs of these
dragonflies (eulin 1895). A tethered, dragonfly toy, similar to that made in Korea, is made
by children on Bandaneira Island in eastern
Indonesia (Simmons 1976). A white coconut
flower or white cotton ball is tied to a stick
that is vibrated at flying A. guttatus. Dragonflies grab the flower or cotton and hold on
long enough to be hand captured.
Dragonflies do not appear to be an important food in Bali or elsewhere in Asia, but
do offer some variety. Given the ingenuity and
fun involved in the capture of dragonflies, the
customs seem to relate as much to sport as to
food. Many of the capture techniques are
based on the observation and understanding
of dragonfly behavior.
Dragonflies are well liked in Asia. Korea's
"red pepper dragonfly," Crocothemis servilia
Drury, whose red body resembles the red peppers so essential to the country's cooking, are
prominent and popular symbols of autumn.
Dragonflies are subjects of Asian art and appear on postage stamps and even on Japanese
family crests. The many Asian customs related to dragonflies and other insects reflect a
more positive attitude toward insects than
generally occurs in the West (Pemberton
1988; 1990a, b; 1994a, b).
Acknowledgements
I thank my Balinese informants, especially Putu
Ateng and She Su Liang of Singaraja and Ketut
Sutiarka of Ubud. J also thank Sid Dunkle (Collin
County Community College, Plano, TX), Coen
Hyoung Lee (University of Idaho, Moscow), and
Nan-Yao Su (University of Florida, Davie), for infonnation on japan, Korea, and Taiwan, respectively.
References Cited
Bodenheimer, F. S. 1951. Insects as human food.
junk, The Hague.
Covarrubias, M. 1937. Island of Bali. Knopf, New
York.
Culin, S. 1895. Korean games with notes on the
corresponding games of China and japan. University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. 1991 reprint, Dover, NY.
Hatto, Y. 1994. "Buri" or " Toriko" a traditional
japanese method of catching dragonflies. Odonatologica 23: 283-289.
Mitsuhashi, J. 1984. Edible insects of the world.
Kokinshoin, Tokyo (in japanese).
Pemberton, R. W. 1988. The use of the Thai giant
waterbug, Lethocerus indicus (Hemiptera: Belostomatidae), as human food in California.
AMERICAN
ENTOMOLOGIST
•
Slimmer
1995
Pan-Pac. Entomo\. 64: 81-82.
1990a. The selling of Gampsocleis gratiosa
Brunner (Orthoptera:Tettigoniidae) as singing pets in China. Pan-Pac. Entomol. 66:
93-95.
1990b. The Korean water beetle game. Pan-Pac.
Entomol. 66: 172-174.
1994a. The revival of rice-field grasshoppers
(Oxya spp.) as human food in Korea. PanPac. Entomol. 70: 323-327.
1994b. Singing Orthoptera in Japanese culture.
Cultural Entomol. Dig. 3: 16-17.
Remington, C. L. 1946. Insects as food in japan.
Entomol. News 57: 119-121.
Simmons, P. 1979. A visual response in dragonflies. Odonatologica 5: 285.
•
Robert W. Pemberton's current address is
Aquatic Plant Management, Agricultural Research Service, United States Department fo
Agriculture, 3205 College Avenue, Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33314. He can be phoned at (305) 4750541, or faxed at (305) 476-9169.
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