Host Plants Association with Longhorn Beetles of Food Value: Traditional Knowledge of the Guaraní as Cultural Identity Keepers

Abstract

The study of plant-insect interactions and how cultural groups perceive and manage them constitutes one of the interests of ethnoentomology. This work describes the association between host plants and longhorn beetles (Order: Coleoptera; Family: Cerambycidae), an important food among the Guaraní peoples of the province of Misiones, Argentina. Different management methods of host tree species are analyzed in order to promote the rearing of larvae for edible use. We also discuss a story about the mythical origin of cerambicids relayed by the Ava Chiripa Guaraní community. We reflect on the importance of the local worldview in the maintenance of ancestral practices, such as the cultural tasks involved in slash-and-burn agriculture and the intimate knowledge of biological relationships between the cerambycids and their woody host plants.

Species selection criteria for firewood. Preferred species and classification categories in two local communities in eastern Misiones, Argentina

“…The economy of settlers is associated with diversified family agriculture sustained in their plots with perennial and annual plantations, cattle raising, and livestock breeding (poultry, pigs and fish in ponds) intended for self-consumption and sale in regional markets. The Guarani people retain much of their traditional subsistence practices, such as slash-and-burn agriculture, harvesting, hunting and fishing for most of the year within large areas of the forest they currently inhabit (Araujo et al 2021, Cebolla Badie 2013, Keller 2008.…”

Differential Dominance of Ecological Processes Shapes the Longhorn Beetle Community in Tropical Rainforests and Temperate Forests of Southwest China

“…With over 36,000 species from around 5300 genera, the Cerambycidae are among the most ecologically diverse and significant beetle groups globally [ 31 ]. Prior research has highlighted a considerable range of hosts, from healthy trees to coarse woody debris, exploited by the larvae of various beetle species [ 32 , 33 ]. This variability is especially notable across regions with distinct climatic types [ 34 ].…”