著者

松浦 誠 程 士国 高 鷹 Matsuura Makoto Chen Shi Guo Guo In

出版者

三重大学生物資源学部

雑誌

三重大学生物資源学部紀要 = The bulletin of the Faculty of Bioresources, Mie University (ISSN:09150471)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.22, pp.41-61, 1999-03-15

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In this paper the present marketing situations of hornet broods as a food material, local specialties and their recipes, and methods for collecting and breeding hornet nests in Yunnan in China are described. The hornet nests marketed in Kunmin are all those belonging to the genus Vespa, -V. mandarinia, V. soror, V. tropica, V. velutina, V. variabilis, V. analis, V. basalis, V. binghami and V. mocsaryana. Newly-emerged imagos soaked in spirits are also sold as Chinese typees of medicine. The hornet broods are sold from the middle of June to the end of October and the top season being from August to September in this area. Each dealer sells about 1,500 to 3,000 kg of hornet nests per year. In Kunmin, the price of hornet nests with broods is 2 to 4 times higher than those of other animal meats (pork, beef, mutton, chicken, etc.). Hornet nests are usually collected by exterminating worker hornets making a counterattack by burning with torches at the entrance of the nests. Recently, attempts were also made to use insecticides or fuses. When a nest too small to use for food is found, the queen and workers are caught alive together with the nest and kept in the garden until the nest grows in autumn. The most popular method for cooking hornet broods is frying in rapeseed oil. Among 25 minority races in Yunnan, Hui Muslims do not eat hornet broods while others favor them greatly as food. For these minority races living in the mountain areas hornet broods in the large nests have been highly important as a nutritious protein source. Though hornet nests have been collected in a self-sufficient amount until recently, they aro now evaluated as a luxury food with the recent advance in the market economy in China. It is therefore presumed that hornet broods are marketed as an expensive seasonal product.