Institute of Natural Sciences, Massey University, Auckland 0632, New Zealand.
Annu Rev Entomol. 2013;58:141-60. doi: 10.1146/annurev-ento-120710-100713. Epub 2012 Oct 1.
Entomophagy is widespread among nonhuman primates and is common among many human communities. However, the extent and patterns of entomophagy vary substantially both in humans and nonhuman primates. Here we synthesize the literature to examine why humans and other primates eat insects and what accounts for the variation in the extent to which they do so. Variation in the availability of insects is clearly important, but less understood is the role of nutrients in entomophagy. We apply a multidimensional analytical approach, the right-angled mixture triangle, to published data on the macronutrient compositions of insects to address this. Results showed that insects eaten by humans spanned a wide range of protein-to-fat ratios but were generally nutrient dense, whereas insects with high protein-to-fat ratios were eaten by nonhuman primates. Although suggestive, our survey exposes a need for additional, standardized, data.
食虫在非人类灵长类动物中很普遍，在许多人类群体中也很常见。然而，人类和非人类灵长类动物的食虫程度和模式有很大的差异。在这里，我们综合了文献，研究了为什么人类和其他灵长类动物吃昆虫，以及是什么导致了它们食虫程度的差异。昆虫的可获得性的变化显然很重要，但在食虫过程中营养物质的作用还不太清楚。我们应用了一种多维分析方法，直角混合三角形，来分析已发表的关于昆虫宏量营养素组成的数据，以解决这个问题。结果表明，人类食用的昆虫的蛋白质-脂肪比范围很广，但通常营养密集，而蛋白质-脂肪比高的昆虫则被非人类灵长类动物食用。尽管这很有启发性，但我们的调查表明，还需要更多的标准化数据。
