
Joost Van ItterbeeckKU Leuven | ku leuven · Section of Animal Physiology and Neurobiology
Joost Van Itterbeeck
Cultural entomology | Natural and social sciences research | Ecosystem (dis)services of social insects (https://joostvanitterbeeck.weebly.com/)
MolassAnt project. DOI 10.3030/101067706. https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101067706.
About
31
Publications
46,624
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Introduction
Oecophylla smaragdina weaver ants; biocontrol; interdisciplinary; natural sciences (biology, entomology); social sciences (ethnobiology, human geography, psychology of food choice); international field experience (Netherlands, Laos, Japan, Madagascar, South Korea); Vespula spp. yellow jackets; Vespa spp. hornets.
Additional affiliations
December 2019 - February 2021
Position
- Researcher
Description
- Exploring the development of rearing principles for Vespa hornets for (i) facilitating research in control and management measures of the invasive alien yellow-legged hornet Vespa velutina, and (ii) supporting mass-rearing of hornets in south China for wine-making, medicine, and food.
January 2018 - December 2020
Madagascar Biodiversity Center
Position
- Principal Investigator
Description
- Insects and People of the Southwest Indian Ocean (IPSIO) network, Working group Insect Farming, responsible for two objectives: (1) create an online knowledge bank of edible insects in Madagascar, and (2) investigate attitudes toward insects as food.
Publications
Publications (31)
Greenhouse gas (GHG) production, as a cause of climate change, is considered as one of the biggest problems society is currently facing. The livestock sector is one of the large contributors of anthropogenic GHG emissions. Also, large amounts of ammonia (NH(3)), leading to soil nitrification and acidification, are produced by livestock. Therefore o...
This book draws on a wide range of scientific research on the contribution that insects make to ecosystems, diets, food security and livelihoods in both developed and developing countries.
Of major importance in realizing the potential of edible insects as a core element in improving food security, sustainable food production, and biodiversity conservation, are developments in sustainable exploitation of wild edible insect populations and in (semi-)cultivating and farming edible insects. Such developments can draw on both western sci...
Madagascar has a long history of using Orthoptera as food and feed. Our understanding of the biological diversity of this resource, its contemporary use, and its future potentials in Madagascar is extremely limited. The present study contributes basic knowledge of the biological diversity and local uses of edible Orthoptera in Malagasy food culture...
Insects used as food and medicine are receiving increased attention. There is a need to scrutinise recent estimates of which and how many insect species are used as we have noticed inappropriate assessments and overestimations. We review the contemporary list of edible insects of the world published online by Wageningen University and compiled by I...
Insects are increasingly promoted as a sustainable protein alternative for human consumption. Yet consumers have shown varied levels of acceptance, especially in countries without a tradition of eating insects. Even in countries where people traditionally eat insects, farmed insects might be considered novel foods if they are not the same species l...
We conducted practical research on the subject of traditional entomophagy, believing that understanding how humans interact with the natural environment to use biological resources is essential for environmental education. We delivered lectures to high school students in regions with and without traditional entomophagy cultures, accompanied by inse...
We propose that an appreciation of traditional entomophagy cultures can lead to an essential understanding of biological resource use, including the relationship between the environment and humans. We conducted after-school lectures on entomophagy with insect-tasting opportunities for high school students. We also analyzed high school students’ exp...
We conducted after-school lectures on entomophagy with insect tasting opportunities for high school students. A short questionnaire survey conducted before and after the lectures suggested that the students had developed a positive, sociocultural view of entomophagy. Therefore, we recommend that introducing entomophagy practices from around the wor...
The estimated figure of two billion people consuming insects mentioned in the 2013 FAO/WUR report about edible insects has been cited many times over. This editorial asks four questions to determine the accuracy of the estimated figure: how to define an ‘insect-eating’ person; which percentage of the population eats insects; how does insect consump...
Forests, and the vertebrate species within them, are irreplaceable sources of
food and nutrition for millions of people living in areas of high biodiversity.
Unfortunately, many of these forests are being cleared for agriculture, and
many animals are threatened with extinction from unsustainable hunting. Forest
clearing and the hunting of threatene...
Of the 34 vespid species recorded worldwide as invasive aliens, particular attention is currently being given to the yellow-legged hornet Vespa velutina that has invaded Europe, Japan, and Korea. The hornet is a voracious predator of bees and a serious threat to bee colonies and bee pollination. Control measures are needed, but their development ha...
Article in The Conversation on warning against consuming swarming locusts.
Local edible insects in central Japan such as Vespula yellowjacket larvae and pupae (hachinoko in Japanese) and Oxya rice grasshoppers (inago in Japanese) have been commercially available in modern forms (cans, bottles) since 1910 in Nagano prefecture. We investigated the current commercial presence of local edible insects in central Japan. The att...
Many of the most nutritionally and economically important edible insects are those that are harvested from existing agricultural systems. Current strategies of agricultural intensification focus predominantly on increasing crop yields, with no or little consideration of the repercussions this may have for the additional harvest and ecology of accom...
Blog article on GaijinPot.com about the three main edible insects in contemporary central Japan.
Blog article about the annual wasp festival in Kushihara, central Japan.
Blog article on GaijinPot.com about wasp hunting in central Japan.
Western societies currently show considerable interest in using insects as human food and/or as animal feed to reduce loss of habitats, use less energy to produce the food or feed in much smaller spaces, and to provide foods and feeds of high nutritional values. There appears to be emphasis on a small number of species for practical reasons: the do...
The Asian weaver ant Oecophylla smaragdina is of importance to Southeast Asian livelihoods as a source of human food and animal feed and as biological control agent in tree crops including mango and citrus. The introduction of weaver ants in plantations requires the inclusion of the reproductive queen. We report on locating the gravid queen in a ma...
http://www.antweb.org/page.do?name=edible
Of major importance in realizing the potential of edible insects as a core element in improving food security, sustainable food production, and biodiversity conservation, are developments in sustainable exploitation of wild edible insect populations and in (semi-)cultivating and farming edible insects. Such developments can draw on both western sci...
De eetbare wevermier zet plaaginsecten om naar menselijk voedsel.
In de landen waar de wevermier gegeten wordt, kan deze daarom ge-
incorporeerd worden in landbouwontwikkelingen. Plantages in Zuid-
oost-Azië zouden daarom binnenkort wel eens boomgewassen én we-
vermieren kunnen produceren, waarbij de wevermier ook fungeert als
bestrijder van plaa...
Article in The Conversation about five important edible insects.
Throughout history humans have manipulated their natural environment for an increased predictability and availability of plant and animal resources. Research on prehistoric diets increasingly includes small game, but edible insects receive minimal attention. Using the anthropological and archaeological literature we show and hypothesize about the e...
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 Mealworm Cricket Locust 0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 Pigs (low) Pigs (high) Beef cattle 0 50 100 150 200 Mealworm Cricket Locust 0 500 1000 1500 2000 Pigs (low) Pigs (high) Objective To quantify the GHG and NH 3 production for three edible insect species to evaluate whether, on these two aspects, they form an environmentally fr...
Questions
Question (1)
I have a nominal variable that divides my data in 8 groups, 1 to 8.
Another nominal variable divides my data in 2 groups, A and B.
Each combination of these two exists, 1A , 1B, 2A, 2B, etc.
The data are frequencies.
I assess whether group A is equal for each of the groups 1 to 8 via pairwise comparison using Fischer's exact test. (It is appropriate to assess A separately from B for the groups 1 to 8 and also Fischer's exact test is appropriate.)
I repeat the procedure with group B. I also do pairwise comparisons of groups 1 to 8 with the pooled data of groups A and B (this is also appropriate). All of this is appropriate for understanding what goes on in my survey.
Problem: Bonferroni correction for testing group A across pairwise comparisons of groups 1 to 8 would be 0.05/28 as 28 possible combinations exist. Fine so far. But I use a subset of my data, i.e., group A. With what number do I divide 0.05 with really when I assess group A, group B, and the pooled data of A and B?
Thank you in advance.