The people living in Manipur have a distinct identity, culture, and food habits. They have a prototype culture of eating insects. In our study, the nutritive contents of five potentially-edible aquatic insects,
Lethocerus indicus
(Lepeletier and Serville) (Hemiptera: Belostomatidae),
Laccotrephes maculatus
(F.) (Nepidae),
Hydrophilus olivaceous
(F.) (Coleoptera: Dytiscidae),
Cybister tripunctatus
(Olivier), and
Crocothemis servilia
(Drury) (Odonata: Libellulidae), were analyzed to inform consumers about the nutritional quality of the insects and the suggested quantity of their intake. A good amount of protein content and high gross energy was recorded among the insects. The results showed high levels of sodium, calcium, and magnesium present in the insects, indicating that they are a good source of minerals. Antinutritional properties of these insects were below 0.52%, which is a non-toxic level. Aquatic insects, such as
C. tripunctatus
, also possesses strong antioxidant activity (110 µg/mL). Therefore, these insects can play a major role in food security, health, and environment management. It is essential to cultivate edible insects to maintain their population sustainability.
Insect resources are vast and diverse due to their enormous diversity. The exploitation and utilization of insect resources is broadly classified into four different categories. The first category is the insects of industrial resources. This level includes the utilization of silk worm, honeybee, lac insect, dye insect, and aesthetic insect. The second category is the utilization of insects for edible and therapeutic purposes. Insects are high in protein and many are rich sources of vitamins and minerals. The third category is the use of insects in forensic investigation. By analyzing the stages of succession of insects at first, rough estimation of the postmortem intervals can be done. The fourth category is the insects of ecological importance. Many insect species act as potential predators and parasites of destructive pests of insect order Lepidoptera, Diptera, and Orthoptera. Insects are also used as bioindicator to assess the cumulative effects of environmental stressors such as pollutants. Despites these fascinating benefits, insect resources are often neglected in India due to lack of proper documentation, less expertise, and advance enterprises in these fields. Hence, the paper reviews the different fascinating facets of insect resources in order to explore and utilize it in a sustainable way with reference to Indian region.
Antheraea frithi
mitogenome was sequenced to understand its phylogenetic and evolutionary relationship. It comprises 22 tRNAs, 13 protein-coding genes, two rRNAs and a AT rich region. The arrangement of mitogenome gene follows the pattern of dytrysian lepidoptera.
rrnL
gene consists of two unique long consensus repeats copy. tRNAs like structure of
trnL
and
trnP
are present in
rrnL
gene and AT rich region, respectively. The phylogenetic analysis by maximum-likelihood method showed that
A. frithi
was clustered with
A. pernyi
and
A. yamamai
, the commercialized wild silkworms.
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