Introduction to the climbing monkey

Climbing monkey is also called butterfly monkey and crawling monkey (scientific name is cicada) - the larvae of grasshopper cicada. Mainly distributed in the Central Plains region of mainland China and surrounding counties and cities (Zhoukou City, Shangqiu City, Henan Province, Fuyang City, Suzhou City, Anhui Province, etc.), among which there are many in Heze, Shandong Province. They are called "crawling monkeys" in the eastern part of the Central Plains. In some areas, it is also called "climbing monkey"; and because it always climbs trees and transforms into a cicada, some places call it "dora monkey". No matter what it is called, it is a pest to pear trees. Together with the longhorn beetle and the golden beetle, it is regarded by pear farmers as a major enemy of stem breakage and stem borer. But it is a very delicious food. It is a strange dish in eastern Henan, northwestern Anhui and other regions. It is delicious and has high medicinal value. Cicadas have strong flying ability and are difficult to reach with general mechanical spraying, so fruit farmers advocate catching them manually. Therefore, from the end of June to July every year, catching monkeys at night has become a major landscape in eastern Henan and northern Anhui.

Latin name: Cryptotympana atrata

Family and genus classification: Homoptera, Cryptotympana family

Characteristics: This product is slightly oval and curved, long About 3.5cm, width about 2cm. The surface is yellow-brown, translucent and shiny. There is a pair of filamentous antennae on the head, most of which have been broken off, and the compound eyes are prominent. The tip of the forehead is prominent, the muzzle is well developed, the upper lip is wide and short, and the lower lip is elongated into a tube shape. The back of the chest is split in a cross shape, and the split is curled inward. There are 2 pairs of small wings on both sides of the back; there are 3 pairs of legs on the ventral surface, covered with yellow-brown fine hairs. The abdomen is blunt and round, with 9 segments. Light, hollow, and fragile. Odorless, light taste.

The real name is grasshopper cicada, the nymph is also called cicada, cicada monkey, etc., and the adult is also called black cicada. It is a representative species of insects in the family Cicadae.

The main production areas are: Heze City, Shandong Province, Woyang County, Xiao County, Dangshan County, Anhui Province, Yongcheng City, Xiayi County, Henan Province and other parts of the eastern Central Plains. In addition to its edible value, grasshoppers also have medicinal properties. When the mature nymphs of grasshoppers transform into adults, the shell that emerges and sheds is called cicada slough, also known as "cicada shed" or "cicada skin". Its main components contain chitin and protein. It tastes sweet, salty and cold, and enters the lungs and liver. Jing is an important pungent and cool traditional Chinese medicine for relieving external symptoms.

The skin of cicada is called cicada, which is rich in chitin and isoxanthin, red butterfly adenosine triphosphatase, and is often used to treat exogenous wind-heat and hoarse cough. Sore throat. According to the "Chinese Materia Medica" records, it can treat rubella itching, red eyes, tetanus, epilepsy in children, and incessant crying at night. It also has the functions of benefiting essence and strengthening yang, quenching thirst and promoting body fluid, protecting lungs and kidneys, treating baldness and suppressing diseases. Meridian distribution of nature and flavor: sweet, cold. Returns to the lung and liver meridians.

Functions and Indications: Dispersing wind and removing heat, soothing the throat, clearing rash, reducing nebula, and relieving spasm. It is used for wind-heat cold, sore throat, hoarse voice, measles, itching, rubella, red eyes, convulsions and tetanus.

Usage and dosage: Oral administration: decoction, 1-2 qian; or take into pills or powder. External use: decoct in water and wash or grind into powder for application.

Contraindications: Pregnant women should take this product with caution.

Storage] Store in a dry place to prevent pressure.

Odor: salty, sweet, cold, non-toxic.

Cicada monkey is cold in nature and fragrant in taste. It has the functions of dispersing wind and relieving lungs, relieving fever and calming convulsion. Cicada monkey is rich in nutrients and tastes delicious, making it a fashionable delicacy. After scientific analysis, grasshoppers are rich in amino acids, proteins and trace elements. Essential amino acids for the human body account for 46.63% of the total amino acids. They can be called the protein king in today's food. The fresh nymphs and adults of grasshoppers, especially the nymphs, are not only rich in nutrients and delicious, but also have particularly high medicinal value, making them top-quality medicinal foods.

Some people have food allergy symptoms, including itching, erythema, and numbness in their limbs. It is recommended that you eat one for the first time and wait for a reaction. If there is no allergic reaction within 5-10 minutes, it is fine. Grasshoppers usually complete one generation in 3 to 5 years, but there are also records of completing one generation in 5 to 6 years or 12 to 13 years. The eggs overwinter in groups on young branches of the current year or biennial and nymphs of all ages are concentrated on the plant roots in the soil. That is, there are two types of overwintering insects, eggs and nymphs of different sizes. The overwintering places are also divided into two types: above ground and underground. environment.

The overwintering eggs begin to hatch in mid-May of the following year. The peak incubation period is from late May to early June, and the incubation activity ends in late June. Eggs mostly hatch in the afternoon during the day, accounting for about 80%, and fewer eggs hatch at night, about 20%. The egg stage is close to 300 days. The activities of the overwintering nymphs are most affected by the ground temperature and the sap of the host plant. When the low temperature is higher than 10°C to 15°C, the tree sap begins to flow, and the overwintering nymphs begin to pierce and feed.

The nymphs (called cicada ants) that hatch from overwintering eggs burrow into the soil and suck sap from the roots of host plants. They are less mobile. As they grow older, they build earthen chambers of different sizes and shapes to live in. The outer surface of the soil chamber is rough, and the inner wall is smooth and moist. Part of the wall is attached to the roots of plants for feeding. When the temperature drops after autumn, they burrow into deep soil layers to survive the winter. When spring warms, they move upward to move around the roots of trees. The number of nymphs in the soil is largest in May of the year, when a large number of overwintering eggs hatch into the soil, and when the last instar nymphs are about to emerge from the soil and molt into adults.

After completing the entire life process of nymphs in the soil, mature nymphs wait until the ground soil is moist from late May to mid-to-late August (usually after rain), which facilitates digging the soil with their front paws and crawling to shrubs. On branches, weed stems, etc., they are fixed on the bark branches and leaves with their claws and thorns on their front legs, and they molt and emerge into adults.

The peak period of adult emergence is from mid-June to mid-July, and the last period is in early October. Adults mate and lay eggs about 20 days after emergence. Egg-laying begins in late June. The peak egg-laying period for adults is from the end of June to late August, and the final period of egg-laying is from early September to early October. The final emergence period for adults is early November. That is, the egg-laying period of adult insects can last from late June to early October.

Adults mostly emerge from 23:00 to 1:00 and 4 to 6:00 in the morning, and the male to female ratio basically maintains a 1:1 ratio. Adults often live on tree trunks and branches and have the habit of fighting fires at night. Adults lay eggs on one or two-year-old branches with a thickness of 2 to 7 mm. The eggs are laid in the xylem of the branch tips. The egg nests are closely connected. Most of them are single rows, some are double rows, arranged in a straight line, and a few are arranged in a curved or spiral shape. . There are 6 to 8 eggs in each egg nest, and there are 12 to 479 eggs in one egg-laying branch, usually 20 to 200 eggs, with an average of 146 eggs. There are 6 to 146 egg holes on each branch. Each female carries more than 500 to 1,000 eggs in her abdomen, with a maximum of 1,500 eggs, a minimum of 20 eggs, and an average of 800 eggs. The adult life span is about 3 months, and the occurrence period is generally from July to September every year. The adults have wings and can fly, and use their piercing-sucking mouthparts to suck the nutrient sap from young branches of trees. After mating, the female cicada inserts the ovipositor into the xylem of the current-year or second-year tender branches before laying eggs, and then lays the eggs. At the same time, the young branches will become dehydrated, dry up and die, causing harm to the trees.

Due to environmental damage and tree felling, the living environment of grasshopper cicada nymphs has been severely damaged, and artificial indiscriminate hunting has resulted in serious depletion of nymph (cicada) resources. In terms of demand, the demand in big cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou alone is more than 100 tons. The market gap is quite large and the market price is getting higher and higher. Artificial breeding of golden cicadas has broad prospects.

The insect is distributed throughout the country and generally occurs in places with an altitude of no more than 250 meters. It harms fruit trees such as pears, dates, apples, apricots, plums, peaches, cherries, mulberries and grapes, as well as willow, locust, poplar, elm and other trees. Its larvae live in the soil, sucking the sap from plant roots, weakening the tree vigor, causing branches to die, and affecting tree growth. Grasshopper larvae live their entire life in the soil. When it is about to emerge, it emerges from the soil at dusk and night, climbs up a tree, then grasps the bark of the tree, and sheds its skin to emerge. At the end of June, the larvae begin to emerge into adults, with a lifespan of about 30 to 60 days. The female adults will begin to lay eggs after they have ingested enough tree sap. The peak egg-laying period is in early and mid-August, and the eggs are mostly laid on the branches with a thickness of 4 to 5 mm. When the female adult lays eggs, she first pierces the bark of the tree with an ovipositor, inserts the ovipositor into the branch tissue, forming a claw-shaped egg hole, and then lays eggs in the xylem. There are 6 to 8 eggs in each spawning hole. There are as many as 90 cicada eggs on one branch. In areas where this insect is serious, it is common to see tree trunks full of dead branches by the end of autumn. The eggs laid will hatch in mid-June of the following year. After hatching, the larvae fall from the branches to the ground and then burrow into the soil. The larvae live in the soil for several years and molt five times. Whenever spring warms, the larvae move upward to suck the juice from plant roots. When autumn turns to winter, they go deep into the soil to avoid the cold. The bodies of young larvae are mostly white or yellow, very soft, and their foreheads are significantly enlarged. The body of the old larvae is harder, yellowish brown, and the wing buds are very developed. From the top of the head to the center of the back and chest, there is a molting line, which is the cracking line when the adult emerges. The molting process begins when a black crack appears on the cicada's back. Molting is controlled by a hormone. The front legs of the cicada pupa are hook-shaped so that when the adult emerges from the empty shell, it can hang firmly on the tree. It is very important that the cicada pupa faces the tree vertically. This is for the normal development of the adult wings, otherwise the wings will develop abnormally. The cicada uses the pupa shell as a base and slowly extricates itself, just like crawling out of a suit of armor. The whole process takes about an hour.

When the cicada's upper body is free, it hangs upside down and spreads its wings. At this stage, the cicada's wings are soft and they spread through the fluid tubes in them. The body fluid pressure causes the wings to expand. When the liquid is pumped back into the cicada's body, the outstretched wings have hardened. If a cicada is disturbed while its wings are unfolding, the cicada will be disabled for life and may not be able to fly at all.

The story of catching a cicada

In our place, the larvae of cicadas are called cicada monkeys. Perhaps the name came from the cicada dialect and the fact that it looked like a huddled monkey.

After mating, the female cicada sticks its tail in a branch to ovulate, and the eggs are knocked to the ground. The eggs slowly grow into crawling monkeys in the soil. When the monkey grows up, it climbs out of the soil and sheds its skin, becoming a cicada. Repeatedly like this, this life is reproduced from generation to generation.

Perhaps many people don’t know that this monkey is a delicacy. When you touch it, soak it in salt water, pinch off the front paws, put it in a pot or fry it in a pan or fry it. If you put a few fried monkeys in the middle of the cut steamed buns, it will be really delicious! Lao Shen did not verify whether there were a few pioneer immigrants in our area who went abroad to give birth to several litters of mixed-race children and evolved our way of eating into sandwiches and McDonald's later.

Catching, crawling, and pulling the monkey is not called catching, it is called touching.

There are two ways to touch it. One is to dig it out from the ground; the other is to pick off the monkey climbing on the tree trunk. However, in recent years, people who touch monkeys lift the trunk 50-80 meters from the ground. Wrap a circle of tape around an inch. When the monkey climbs to the tape, the front paws of the tape are smooth and cannot fix the body position, so it will fall down and crawl again. This way, the monkey can avoid the situation of being unable to reach the tree trunk high up.

The climbing monkey grows deep in the soil and is said to take nine years to grow. The mature monkey will slowly use its two thick and powerful front paws to dig the soil above its head under its feet. When a thin layer is left, it will dig out a small hole. The instinct of survival makes it observe from the hole until it gets dark before crawling out of the hole. Experts who touch the altar often get there first at this time, bending their waists and searching the dense caves with their eyes. To be honest, what strictly distinguishes a monkey hole from an ant hole is a feeling, just like table tennis, it is determined by talent.

Those of us who are second- and third-rate people in the touch world can only wait to touch things climbing on trees. Even so, there is a lot of technical content. You first need to know what kind of trees are suitable for climbing monkeys to grow under. You also need to avoid some scary things when touching. At the same time, you need to have quick eyesight and quick legs to run ahead of other touching hands. Climbing monkeys are generally unearthed in two batches, one in the evening and one at night. In an era when flashlights are considered luxury goods, people who don’t understand technology can’t handle them very well.

With the deepening of reform and opening up, it was unexpected that this climbing monkey also had professional farmers. Many farmers no longer plant crops but plant trees that are suitable for climbing monkeys. No longer waiting for the thunderstorm to come, but artificially break off the branches where the cicadas have laid eggs and bury them in the soil. In order to prevent the climbing monkey from climbing too high, smart people also wrapped a plastic sheet in the middle of the tree trunk. The plastic sheet that reduces the friction force is enough to prevent the climbing monkey from continuing to climb.

As a result, climbing monkeys became a commodity, and now they have been upgraded to green food. The price has also increased from one yuan and twenty pieces to now a few yuan. When eating, they no longer fry them slowly, but fry them all in a pan. The seasonings are even more colorful.

But no matter how much I eat it, I still can’t taste the same taste as when I was a child!