Description
the white forms of Goliathus goliatus (Linnaeus, 1771), Stephanocrates preussi (Kolbe, 1892), and Fornasinius aureosparsus (Van de Poll, 1890) which are largely gathered in some parts of Sub-Saharan Africa for international pet and insect collectors trade and which are currently an important source of rural income in Cameroon montane forest regions [1]. In the east region of Cameroon, beetles are exploited not only for trade, but also for food. The Augosoma centaurus (Fabricius, 1775) beetle in particular is eaten both in its larvae and adult stages. Across the forest region of East Cameroon, this beetle is mainly gathered as cultural delicacy in periods of availability. This beetle is amongst the biggest of the family Dynastinae in Africa and they measure between 40 mm and 90 mm in length. The males show cephalic and thoracic horns. The females are similar to the males, except that they have no horns and the lengths of the anterior tibia are shorter. The genus Augosoma is the only representative of the Dynastini tribe in Africa and is represented by two species: Augosoma centaurus and Augosoma hippocrates . The Augosoma centaurus is largely distributed across tropical Africa, from 10 ∘ N to 10 ∘ S, especially in the forested parts of Guinea, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, DRC, and Congo, while Augosoma hippocrates is localized in Gabon [14]. In most cases, Augosoma centaurus occurs in very large numbers and can constitute a major pest to some forest plant species like palms, coconut, and eucalyptus [15, 16]. The adults feed on the apical buds, while the larvae bore into the stems of raffia and other palm species. Adult individuals are usually attracted to light in villages at the edge of forests, where they are easily gathered by simple hand-picking. They occur generally at the beginning of the dry season, constituting, therefore, a potential source of protein at a period when other groups of edible insects like caterpillars, grasshoppers, and termites are no longer available in the area. This paper describes the use of Augosoma centaurus as alternative sources of protein in the east region of Cameroon. 2.1. Description of the Study Area. The study was con- ducted in 10 subdivisions of the east region of Cameroon; notably, Yokadouma, Salapoumbe, Gari-Gombo, Diang, Belabo, Batouri, Ndellele, Mandjou, Dimako, and Doumé subdivisions. The east region has a total surface area of about 109,011 km 2 and is bounded to the east by the Central African Republic, to the south by Republic of Congo, to the north by the Adamaoua Region, and to the west by the Centre and South Regions. According to history, the peoples of this region have been settled in Cameroonian territory for longer than any other of the country’s many ethnic groups, the first inhabitants being the Baka pygmies [17].
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