GUWAHATI, Oct. 26 -- Edible insects have long been part of the traditional food practices of indigenous communities in Northeast India, where beetle larvae are roasted with local spices and aquatic species are collected from paddy fields. A new scientific study has documented the diversity of edible beetles across the region, highlighting their nutritional potential and the threats facing the habitats that support them.

Published in npj Entomology, a Nature Portfolio journal, the study recorded 75 species of edible beetles and weevils consumed by indigenous communities in Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram and Nagaland. Of these, 24 species were documented as edible for the first time globally, while five were recorded as food sources f...