Aristotle Was Fond Of Eating This........

Eugh..thank goodness I've had my breakfast..thats a horrid looking thing!

Yach ! :(( what IS that ? You'd have to be desperate to eat such a thing lol :D
It looks like some sort of beetle and must be something that attacks trees but I don't know what.

I looked it up....I mean, I googled 'What Beetle Did Aristotle Eat?' and I got the answer. I was surprised!

Actually it is a true bug (note the mouthparts in the last photo) and not a beetle. The Chinese also deep fry them for consumption. Another hint for the others...what you see is not the adult form of this insect.

I also had to look it up.

Wasn't there a brief fashion for eating chocolate coated grasshoppers some years back? I seem to remember Harrods being said to sell them..

Yes this is the final sheded exoskeleton of the cicada. They are now in the trees their calling sound for a mate has the sound of steam in the heat of summer. While walking one of my dogs I noticed a cicada killer wasp on the hunt so I surmised that they were emerging so I started looking for these shedded husks. The comment I made about flagging relates to their slicing the branch of a tree into which they deposit their eggs. This sometimes kills the branch and the leaves on it will turn brown thus creating a " flag" on a tree. This natural pruning of a tree is not considered detrimental. In the photo is either an annual or biannual cicada. I have witnessed a few times the emergence of the 17 year one and it is nothing less than spectacular to see and hear. I have examples of both types in my insect collection and I will post photos of them within a day or two in this blog. Stera, when I lived in New York City there was a gourmet shop that specialized in selling exotic delights such as chocolate covered ants. They were delicious.

I recognize cicadas! Every 17 years, in Cincinnati, Ohio (USA), where I grew up, we would get swarmed by them.
Still happens. Perhaps I'd have a new appreciation of them now but last time I saw them, I was in high school and they were very crunchy underfoot and they would all die on the hood of cars so you had to sweep them out of bit where the windshield wipers were.

Ah, the memories! :-)

Well I'd certainly pass on the above. I have heard that there are Bug restaurants in the SW (Cornwall?). The bugs are mashed up; made into something or other and presented with areal bug of that species on the top.

I'll pass on that as well.

Nice images, though.

I will give them a pass as well, as for the last pic - she is much cuter than any bug!

Yuk Eirlys - gone quite off my lunch now...