Insect Blood

1. Not always colourless - for example, cockroach blood is white.

2. Don't know, and I'm not gonna find out for you, either!

You've never heard of a cricket licket? Or mealworm stirfry? Tsk.

And bugs don't have blood like we do. But I only took the basics in entomology and I forget it all

I believe bugs have ichor, not blood, but that's the extent of my knowledge on the subject.

Good luck with it!

Yeah, their blood is more like hydraulic fluid. Increase pressure to extend a leg, etc.

Back in my bug-squishin' days, it was usually yellow to brown (flies), but sometimes an unusual color like blue (beetles).

I never ate any, that I can recall.

Has no-one heard of cochineal?

So, I did a brief search on insect physiology. Here's the link to a book where they talk about the circulatory system.

http://books.google.com/books?id=fU...5jdDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=10

I would pay particular attention to the part about composition of the blood - it states that sodium chloride concentrations are much higher than in mammals, so from this I would guess that maybe the blood would taste more salty than ours. It also talks about honey bees obviously having more sugar in their blood - perhaps their blood in particular would be slightly sweeter. Just wild speculation here.

Insect that dine on blood such as mosquitoes, fleas, etc. will have actual blood in their guts if not in their veins. Too small to eat, thoug, I would think.

To answer your question of who, anyone who's been in military special forces or through survival school has been required to chomp a few bugs to learn how to survive. My sister was an intelligence officer in the air force and had to go through survival school where they ate ants, maggots, worms (which she described as wiggly spagetti) and any other bugs they could find out in the woods where they had to survive for something like two weeks with nothing but their pack, a knife, and no outside food allowed.

ETA: As to who would know about the bugs and their blood and colors, a local university should have an entimology section, or at least a biology professor who would know if you can't find your answers here.

ants have a lot of formic acid in them and taste pretty nasty. Those big african grubs supposedly taste like rubber bands. There are some restraunts that deal in insects-- why not try to find one on youtube and watch it-- they may say what they taste like. I would think that insects need to be covered with a lot of sauce to taste good though.

I am thinking YouTube would be a great place to look. There's bound to be goofies who have made videos of themselves eating bugs. Maybe they comment on taste. Also survival schools, not just the military ones, might have info.

Honeypot ants, and Wichety (sp?) grubs eaten raw are delicacies in Australia (to the aboriginals).
Tarantula's are prized in Venezuela (they bake them to get all the prickly hairs off first).

You could try seeing if anyone's described the taste ....

I'll pass ...

The "blood" of tarantulas, and many insects, is called hemolymph.

I know a couple of die-hards that eat their feeder insects because they won't give their tarantulas something they themselves wouldn't eat. I'll see if I can find you a link.

Going back many many moons, I don't believe insects have circulatory systems per say. They may have hydraulic channels to move their limbs, and some sort of lymph system, but Blood? I don't think so.

SilverPhoenix said:

Still don't know about the taste...I'm tempted to drink insect blood. Seriously. And I'm squeamish.

My MC gets the insect blood/fluid/ichor on his hand, and I need him to be able to work out what it is. I'm not sure of any other way except the taste of the stuff. It's dark so he can't see much.

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I haven't had any insect juice lately, but, as I recall it, it didn't have much taste. I think that it did not smell very nice, but the flavor was not proportionate with the smell. You MC should be able to figure out something about it from the smell, and it would hurt if he tasted it.

The circulatory systems of insects are minimal, more like the human lymphatic system.

There are some insects that taste really bad, including many ants that have high levels of formic acid.

I only know that red ants taste a bit like pickles, but not as sour. Don't ask how.

I watched "I'm a celebrity get me out of here" avidly and I remember someone, I think it was Carol Thatcher, saying mealyworms taste of hazlenuts. Blech.

Also, I can tell you for sure that the yellow furry caterpillar crawling across the hardwood in my house just now oozed lemon curd - after my german shepherd accidentally stood on it.