Entomological entrees lead to nibbles with Nobels

Chrystal with her caterpillars.

The PhD student and Lincoln University lecturer has been awarded a Catalyst:Leaders Fund through the Royal Society Te Apārangi to attend the 15th HOPE meeting with seven Nobel Laureates in Kyoto Japan, which starts 26 February.

It is for students from the Asia-Pacific and Africa region, and she is one of five travelling from New Zealand. The event is intended to “inspire and motivate them to become excellent scientists able to shoulder the future of science and technology in the region”.

“I’m looking forward to making new connections and hearing new ideas,” she said and is excited about the trip.

“My PhD is looking at insects that are unique to Aotearoa and feeding them rākau rongoā (medicinal plants) to see if this increases the nutritional value of the insect and if they are a viable source of sustainable food.”

This has included manuka and kawakawa, and the signs are the beneficial properties of the plants may be imbued in the native caterpillars she has studied, though whether they are going to be a regular request on Uber Eats soon was something else, she admitted.

She grew up working on a dairy farm just out of Cambridge and did her master’s research on milk protein digestion. When choosing her PhD research focus, she realised her former area was a well populated one,  changing direction to look at indigenous foods and sustainability with AgResearch.

Chrystal said insects like caterpillars were traditional indigenous foods but had not been eaten for many years. Surveys she carried out showed many Māori would be willing to try the caterpillars, and in many parts of the world like Asia and Africa eating insects was often a normal practice, and they were a sustainable food source.

Even with the encouragement of the insects having the extra benefits of the medicinal plants and being protein packed she said it may need some work to get them accepted here.

However, she also wanted to look into the medicinal qualities of the endemic native plants too.

Chrystal will be teaching a Mahika Kai course, which relates to not just the gathering of kai but also the ecosystems and habitats these species are found in, at Lincoln in Semester 1 next year.

She will also be attending an indigenous farming conference in the United States on the way home from the HOPE meeting.

The Nobel Laureates at HOPE include physics, chemistry and physiology/medicine category winners.