Collection and ConsuDlption of
Pandora Moth, Coloradia pandora
lindseyi (Lepidoptera: Saturniidae),
Larvae by OlVens Valley and Mono
Lake Paiutes
Elizabeth A. Blake and Michael R. Wagner
T
HROUGHOUT HISTORYhumans have used a variety of insect species as sources of food: as everyday dietary supplements, occasional delicacies, and replacements for more
common foods in times of shortages. Few Westerners realize that
the practice of collecting and consuming insects in various life
stages continues today. Human entomophagy is not limited to
"primitive" peoples or practiced only in cases of critical food
shortage. There are modern Indian people in the United States,
living within walking distance of major grocery and fast-food chains,
who choose to collect and eat larvae of the pandora moth, Coloradia pandora lindseyi Barnes & Benjamin. Piuga, as the Paiute Indians call the larvae, is a traditional food source among these people
of the Owens Valley-Mono Lake area of California.
The pandora moth faces several natural control factors, among
which are overwintering mortality, predators, parasites, and a nucleopolyhedrosis virus (NPV). Only the virus seriously affects epidemic populations and leads to the inevitable collapse of outbreak
populations (Patterson 1929, Wygant 1941, Carolin & Knopf 1968).
The NPV is apparently spread through the population by contact
during feeding. Infected larvae turn orange-brown and their body
contents become liquid (Wygant 1941). Because the body wall ruptures easily in this infected state, any healthy larvae that come in
direct physical contact with infected larvae easily contract the disease. The diseased larvae tend to crawl to the end of the terminal
branch before they die and hang in an inverted V shape from the
branch (Wygant 1941; M.R. Wagner, personal observation).
Life History
Materials and Methods
The collection methods used by the Paiutes are closely related to
the life cycle of Coloradia pandora Blake, which deserves discussion at this point. The life cycle is generally the same for all subspecies throughout
North America; therefore, we use the
description for C.pandora. C.p. lindseyi is the subspecies in eastcentral California. The pandora moth, one of the largest defoliating
insects in North America, has a 2-year life cycle. Adults emerge from
late July to early August, mate, and the females lay their pale blue
eggs indiscriminately on bark surfaces, needles, and undergrowth.
Tiny first instars emerge from the eggs in late August and immediately crawl to the tips of the branches and begin to feed in colonies.
They overwinter at the base of the needles, feeding only on warm
days. Larvae resume full-time feeding on the needles of their hosts
in the spring when temperatures are consistently warmer. The
larvae grow rapidly and consume an enormous quantity of needles
(Carolin & Knopf 1968) of all ages and can defoliate their hosts
completely during an outbreak. Mature larvae are ca. 5.5-6 cm in
length and as big around as an adult's finger.
Pandora moth larvae pupate in the loose mineral soil beyond the
dripline of the tree (Miller & Wagner 1984), though pupae are
sometimes found beneath the litter or duff layer near the base of the
tree (Schmid et al. 1982). Larvae crawl down the trees in late June to
early July and seek pupation sites. Pupae remain in the soil until the
following July, when adults emerge and begin the cycle anew.
In an effort better to understand the methods for collection and
preparation of the pandora moth and to determine the extent of the
practice today, we traveled to the Owens Valley-Mono Lake area
and talked with several Paiute Elders. Before leaving for California
we conducted an extensive literature review to learn more about
the past culture of the Paiute Indians. We also spoke with several
anthropologists who are involved with various North American Indian tribes, especially the Paiutes in the Owens Valley-Mono Lake
area. It is not always easy to communicate with persons of another
culture, and we wanted to be sensitive, respectful, and sincere in
our interviews with the Paiute Elders and in our subsequent reports.
The result is a fairly accurate account of the collection, storage, and
cooking methods used by the Paiute Indians in the past and present.
SPRING 1987
Historical Accounts
J. M. Aldrich (1912) of the Smithsonian Institution first documented the collection of piuga. He relied on second-hand information from the non-Indian clerk at the Mono Lake store. Therefore,
that original report contained several errors. Aldrich (1921) attempted to correct his earlier account of the practice after realizing
his mistakes. He received new information from Guy S. Way (unpublished data and letters), a ranger with the U.S. Forest Service in
Bishop, Calif., who had witnessed the collection process. However,
23
related to us. Apparently, he was able to sort out the corrections in
the 1921 report by Aldrich.
Piuga and the Paiute Indians
Larvae consume all ages of needles, leaving their hosts completely defoliated during an outbreak.
Aldrich's corrected description was unclear on certain points, especially on certain aspects of the method used to gather the larvae.
Aldrich never actually pointed out the mistakes in the 1912 report,
but instead left it to the reader to discover them. And so the original
account, by the clerk who had not actually witnessed the collection
process, which noted the use of smoke to overcome the larvae and
cause them to drop to the ground, has been repeated in much of the
entomological literature for decades (Essig 1934, Bodenheimer
1951, Keen 1952, Carolin & Knopf 1968, Furniss & Carolin 1977).
Patterson (1929) is the only major source of scientific information
on the pandora moth that reports the collection methods the Paiutes
Adult male pandora moth
24
The Paiutes are traditionally hunters and gatherers who live in the
Owens Valley and Mono Basin region, east of the Sierra Nevada
Mountain Range in California. Game, wild vegetables, nuts, and insects, including piuga, provided the bulk of their diet in the past. "It
requires some skill and knowledge of the life history of the insect
for the Indians to bring home the bacon in the peagie (piuga) industry," (G. Way, unpublished data). The Indian people do not express their knowledge of the life history of piuga in scientific terms,
but they are keenly aware of the 2-year developmental period of the
insect and know precisely when the preferred larval stage is available.
Collection. The traditional piuga collection areas are near the
town of Mammoth Lakes, Calif. There is still some confusion about
the ownership of collection territories by individual families. Fowler
& Walter (1985) suggested that trenches or territories are owned by
families and are inherited through matriarchal lineage. However,
one Elder told us that the idea of ownership comes from the respect
for other families' collection areas in a given year, and that piuga is
not necessarily collected from the same trees or in the same area
every piuga year.
Every other year, during the 2nd or 3rd week of june, the Indian
people search for evidence of piuga around the base of large (>46
cm in diameter at breast height [dbh]) jeffrey pines, Pinus jeflre)'i
Grev. & Balf.,which they call bull pines. "Piuga trees" are located by
searching for frass under or falling from the trees. Once the piuga
trees are located, the people return to their homes and wait for the
larvae to mature. The Paiutes return ca. 4 july to collecl the "ripe"
piuga. In the past, gathering piuga was a family project that often
lasted for up to 3 weeks, during which time the Paiutes camped at
the collection site.
The Elders have no concept of outbreak populations, only of
good, normal, and bad collection years. A good year probably corresponds to an outbreak or epidemic population, a bad year probably corresponds to a population collapse after an outbreak, and a
moderate or normal collection year probably corresponds to an endemic population. In a good year it is easy to collect "as much as
you can gather." Indeed, Chief jake Garrison and his multifamily
group collected and cured 1.5 tons of piuga during the 1920 season
(Aldrich 1921). The Elders told us that piuga is always available in
collection years, but sometimes in great abundance as a gift from
Mother Earth.
The Paiutes collect piuga when the mature larvae begin to crawl
down the bole of the tree to pupate. A trench, ca. 0.3 m deep and 0.6
m wide, is excavated around, and 0.3 m from, the base of each piuga
tree to collect the larvae (Fowler & Walter 1985). Old trenches, constructed during previous piuga years, are cleared of litter and loose
soil and used as well. When the mature larvae crawl down the tree,
they fall into the trench and are prevented from escaping by its
vertical or undercut waifs. Piuga are then collected by hand from the
trenches once or twice a day and placed in slick-sided plastic
BULLETIN OF THE ESA
buckets, which have replaced the traditional handmade collection
baskets.
Only piuga that crawl down from the trees are collected, because
they are the "good ones." The clerk at the Mono Lake store told
Aldrich that the Paiutes smoked the piuga out of the trees with
smudge fires, but the Elders we talked with said they have never
seen this done. Many felt it would not be a useful technique (Fowler
& Walter 198';). Apparently, a few Paiutes have tried this method, or
have tried picking the larvae out of the trees, but these method'i
produce an inferior product because the larvae are "not ready, they
are too skinny and sometimes taste bad." Another currently used
collection method, which was observed by Fowler & Walter in 1981,
is to pick the larvae off the ground or off the trunk as they crawl
down. This method is probably used because many of the collectors
are older people and children who are not physically able to dig the
traditional trenches. The result is essentially the same, except that
many larvae "get away," resulting in a reduced harvest.
A question often asked is, "Why do the Paiute Indians dig the
collecting trenches when they can pick the larvae off the ground or
tree trunks?" Fowler & Walter (1985) stated that the trenches constitute, in effect, additional personnel by freeing individuals from the
task of collecting the larvae, thereby allowing them to help with the
processing. The trenches also act as caches (the Paiute word for
trench, "odiabi," is from the root "tia," which means "to cache") to
keep the fragile larvae from heat and overcrowding.
Processing. The collecred piuga are processed on the SpOl: rhis
includes roasting and dl)'ing. A mound of sandy soil is made and a
fire is built on and around it to heat the soil. When the coals die
down, the mound is opened and the live piuga are thrown in and
mixed with the hot sand to roast for 30 min to 1 h. The roasting
effectively removes the setae. The piuga are then sifted from the hot
sandy soil, formerly with a conical basket made especially for this
purpose, hut now using a hardware-cloth
sifter. Piuga are washed,
sorted, and checked to be sure that they are properly cooked by
rolling them in the hands with the fingers. Any "flat," overcooked,
or discolored piuga are discarded; they should be firm, and the insides should resemble the color and consistency of the yolk of a
hard-boiled egg. Those that are undercooked
are thrown back into
the mound of hot soil; those that are properly cooked are spread
out on tarps in the shade to dry for a period of 2 days to 2 weeks
(Fowler & Walter 1985, Weaver & Basgall 198-5) One Elder told us it
did not matter if piuga were dried in the shade or sun, but several
others said they become rancid if dried in the sun.
Storage. Dried piuga are stored in a cool, dry place, where they
will keep for at least 1 year (Weaver & Basgall 1986) or up to 2 years,
according to several Elders. In the past, piuga were stored in lean-to
structures, five of which have been found in the forest in the Long
Valley-Mono
Basin area (Weaver & Basgall 1986) The structures
were constructed of logs and branches, set against medium-sized
Jeffrey pines, and overlaid with slabs of bark. Piuga is now stored in
the freezer.
Preparation and Consurnption. To prepare piuga, the roasted
dried larvae are boiled in plain or salted water for ca. 1 h to soften
the bodies. The aroma of the cooking piuga is much like that of
mushroom
soup or scrambled eggs and mushrooms. The entire
SPRING 1987
Roasted larvae are boiled in water before they are eaten like popcorn or in a stew with vegetables. (Photo courtesy of C. S. Fowler &
N. P. Walter [1985].)
larva, except for the head is eaten as a finger food, like popcorn.
Many people drink the broth and some use it to make a stew with
vegetables and piuga (Fowler & Walter 1985), though none of the
Elders we talked with prepare
it this way.
Ruth Brown, one of the Elders, gave us a few dried piuga to
sample. We cooked them according to her instructions and invited
several graduate students and faculty to try them. No one thought
they were unpalatable; however, few found them tasty, and several
suggestions were made to improve the flavor and texture. The suggested improvements
included adding some salt to the cooking
water or directly to the cooked larvae, and cooking them longer, ,t'i
Lean-to shelters, such as this one found near Mammoth Lakes,
Calif., were used to store piuga. (Photo courtesy of R. Weaver & M.
Basgall [1986].)
25
harm the healthy trees; only the very "sick" trees might die. Their
knowledge was supported in a study by Wagner & Mathiasen (1985),
who found that the majority of dead trees at Jacob Lake,Ariz., 3 years
after severe defoliation by the pandora moth, had been heavily infested with dwarf mistletoe at the time of the outbreak. The uninfested or lightly infested trees did not suffer mortality. The Forest
Service decided not to attempt to control the insects in the Inyo
National Forest, based primarily on the recommendation of the
Paiute Indians, but also because of the possibility of contaminating a
traditional
Paiute food source. The insect population
collapsed
the
following year because of a NPV,the trees refoliated, and little, if
any, growth loss or mortality occurred (U.S. Forest Service 1981).
The Paiute Elders we spoke with had no concept of the NPVthat
infects the insects and generally leads to the collapse of epidemic
population outbreaks. One Elder told us of seeing balls of sick or
dead piuga in the tops of Jeffrey pines when she was a child. When
she asked her mother about this, she was told that lightening had
killed the piuga. The scene she described to us, larvae hanging
limply from branches in groups at the tops of trees, is quite similar
to our own observations of viral infection. Because the Paiutes allow
the larvae to crawl down their host trees before collecting them, it is
possible that the Indian people had never encountered infected
piuga because infected larvae die in the trees.
Cultural information could have been useful during an outbreak
of a closely related species of pandora moth, Coloradia pandora
pandora Blake, on ponderosa pine, Pinus ponderosa Doug. ex
Laws., in northern Arizona in 1981. Schmid et al. (1981) attempted
to reduce the insect population using prescribed burning in a typVirus-killed larva hangs from a branch tip in the typical inverted V ical ponderosa pine stand to kill the pupae in the soil. They believed
shape.
that the pupae were located under the crown of the trees where
litter depths are adequate to carry a hot fire (Schmid et al. 1982).
However, the Elders told us piuga pupate in the loose soil beyond
the dripline of the tree where litter is too sparse to carry a fire hot
enough to kill the pupae. Miller & Wagner (1984) again supported
the larvae were somewhat dry and leathery. Fowler & Walter (1985) the Paiutes' observations with their scientific evaluation of pupal
also made the comment that the skins of the larvae were tough. distribution. They stated that the pandora moth tends to pupate
under open canopies where fuel loads are light, and, therefore, preFresh piuga is probably tastier than the frozen dried larvae we ate.
Piuga is regarded by the Paiute Indians as a tasty, nutritious food scribed burning has limited value for controlling the insect. Had this
that is especially good for sick people, much like our chicken soup. information been available, the prescribed burning project, which
One Elder told us it is her favorite food, and many said they would proved to be ineffective, would never have been initiated.
Conclusion. The collection and consumption of C. p. lindseyi
eat piuga every day if it were available. A nutritional analysis of prepared piuga (Fowler & Walter 1985) showed that it has a relatively larvae is currently practiced among the Paiute Indians of east-central
high protein content (11.78%), especially when compared with California. They collect and eat piuga because they like it, it is nutrimost Owens Valley food plants (Yanovsky & Kingsbury 1938). Other tious, and it is a reliable food source. Although only 50-100 Paiute
nutrients measured included carbohydrates, 4.33%; fat, 10.94%; and Indians, most of whom are older people and young children, are
currently using piuga, Indians of other ages are very aware of this
moisture, 71.82%.
Cultural Versus Scientific Knowledge. The use of C.p. lindseyi as a food source. Interest in piuga is beginning to increase as young
food source has given the Owen Valley-Mono Lake Paiutes an inti- Paiutes return to the traditional ways of their tribe.
As to the potential use of cultural knowledge of insects, we bemate knowledge of the life cycle and behavior of this insect. This
pool of knowledge is a valuable resource that was used by decision- lieve entomologists should consider it as an important source of
makers in the Inyo National Forest in 1981. Severe defoliation of the information about specific insect species, their life cycle, and their
Jeffrey pine forest by the pandora moth caused a public outcry and behavior. This kind of information would not only assist scientists in
appeared to dlreaten the trees with growth loss and mortality. The their understanding of biological systems, but would also aid in the
Paiute Elders told the Forest Service personnel that piuga would not understanding and appreciation of native cultures and practices.
26
BULLETIN OF THE ESA
Acknowledgment
We thank the following people for their assistance in the collection of
information leading to this publication: the Bishop Tribal Elders, especially
Ruth Brown, Andy Garrison, Albert Merridith, and Helen McGee; Richard
Barlow (Director of the Bishop Tribal Elders Center);]ames Cooper, Richard
Serino, and Richard Weaver (CSDA Forest Service, Inyo National Forest,
Bishop, Calif.); Thomas Koerber (CSDA Forest Service, P.S.W., Berkeley,
Calif.); Catherine S. Fowler (eniv. of Nevada-Reno, Reno, Nev.); Nancy Peterson Walter (Calif. State Cniv. at Northridge, Northridge, Calif.); and Joyce
Griffen and William Griffen (Northern Arizona Cniv., Flagstaff,Ariz.).
Burkard
Entomological apparatus
Precision dispensing equipment
Hand
Microapplicator
References Cited
Aldrich, J. M. 1912. Larvae of a saturniid moth used as food by California
Indians.]. NY Entomol. Soe. 20: 28-32.
1921. Colomdia pandom Blake, a moth of which the caterpillar is used as
a food by Mono Lake Indians. Ann. Entomol. Soc. Am. 14: 36-38.
Bodenheimer, F.S. 1951. Insects as human food: a chapter in the ecology of
man. Junk, The Hague.
Carolin, V. M. &]. A.C. Knopf. 1968. The pandora moth. C.S. Dep. Agrie.,
For. ServoPest Leafl. 114.
Essig, E. O. 1934. The value of insects to the California Indians. Sci. Mon. 38:
181~ 186.
Fowler, C. S. & N. P. Walter. 1985. Harvesting pandora moth larvae with the
Owens Valley Paiute. J. Calif. Great Basin Anthropol. 7(2): (in press).
Furniss, R. L. & V. M. Carolin. 1977. Western forest insects. C.S. Dep. Agrie.,
For. ServoMise. Publ. 1339.
Keen, F. D. 1952. Insect enemies of western forests. C.S. Dep. Agrlc., For.
ServoMise. Pub1.273.
Miller, K K & M. R. Wagner. 1984. Factors influencing pupal distribution of
the pandora moth (Lepidoptera: Saturniidae) and their relationship to
prescribed burning. Environ. Entomol. ]3: 430-431.
Patterson, ]. E. 1929. The pandora moth, a periodic pest of western pine
forests. I:.S. Dep. Agric., For. ServoTech. Bull. 137.
Schmid, ]. M., L. Thomas & T.]. Rogers. 1981. Prescribed burning to increase mortality of pandora moth pupae. C.s. Dep. Agrie., For. ServoRes.
Note RM-40,).
Schmid, ]. M., P. A. Farrar & ]. M. Mitchell. 1982. Distribution of pandora
moth egg masses and pupae near Jacob Lake, Arizona. Environ. Entomol.
11: 70]-704.
U.S. Forest Service. 1981. Pandora moth outbreak in sharp decline. Inyo
National Forest News, C.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service,
Bishop, Calif.
Wagner, M. R. & R. L. Mathiasen. 1985. Dwarf mistletoe-pandora moth interaction and its contribution to ponderosa pine mortality in Arizona.
Great Basin Nat. 4'): 423-426.
Weaver, R. A. & M. E. Basgall. 1986. Aboriginal exploitation of the pandora
moth larvae in east-central California: a comparative reevaluation.]. Calif.
Great Basin Amhropol. 7(3): (in press).
Wygant, N. D. 1941. An infestation of the pandora moth, Colomdia pandora
Blake, in lodgepole pine in Colorado.]. Econ. Entomol. 34: 697-702.
Yanovsky, E. & R. M. Kingsbury. 1938. Analyses of some Indian food plants.
]. Assoc. Off. Agric. Chem. 21: 648-665.
•
A variable drop size hand-operated Microapplicator
NOW WITH INCREASED DELIVERY RANGE O· 26J11-60JlI
Five dIfferent drop sizes may be selected by sliding a single
selector control knob. Depressing the control knob permits
free rotation of the main drum. Drop sizes range from O·26J1lto
SO,ulwhen fitted with all-glass syringes.
Automatic
Microapplicator
Automatic Microapplicator
An automatic low voltage micrometer syringe with a delivery
rate of 80 doses per minute using all glass syringes. Doses from
0·1 to IOJll in twenty sleps can be rapidly selected. The
instrument may be used in any position while low voltage and
power consumption enables it to be operated from mains or
battery using a foot or ring and finger switch.
jB
Two instruments from our wide range of
equipment. Contact u.s now for our
General Catalogue
Burkard Manufacturing Co Ltd
EUZABETHA. BlAKE is a Research Associate in Forest Pest Management at Nortbern Arizona Unh'., School of Forestry in Flagstaff.
MICHAELR. WAGNERis Associate Professor of Forest Pest Management at Nortbern Arizona Univ., School of Forestry in Flagstajj:
SPRING ]987
Woodcock Hill Industrial Estate
Rickmansworth Hertfordshire WD3 IP] ENGLAND
Telephone Rickmansworth 773134/6
Telex 8813194
27