When we were very young, after the summer rains, many children liked to go to the hillside and in the woods to catch a black insect that could not fly because of its wet wings. The insect's body is dark brown in length, but it has a pair of very long antennae, and it has a lot of force, and if it doesn't grasp it hard, it will escape.
Whenever the children catch these bugs, they will be placed on the stove to roast, and when they are roasted to brown, the children can eat them. According to the children who have eaten this bug, this bug has no peculiar smell and is still quite fragrant.
Because this bug can make a "click, click" sound, its sound is very similar to the sound of saw trees, so this bug has a graceful name----- "saw tree lang", in our place is called "water yak cow", in some areas known as robin, hair, sky buffalo, octagonal, hornworm, flower girl, etc., in fact, its scientific name is Tianniu.
It is a general term for insects of the Coleoptera, Pterodactylidae, and Tianniu family, and there are about 20,000 species of insects in the world, but regardless of which kind of Tianniu, they have chewing mouth organs, and they have antennae with more than the length of the body, which is an insect that can cause significant harm to pine, cypress, willow, elm, walnut, citrus, apple, peach, tea, and cotton, wheat, corn, sorghum, sugarcane and hemp plants. Individual species of Tianniu can even cause harm to buildings, houses and furniture.
Generally speaking, the celestial cow is a "short-lived" insect, although its first-aged larvae can survive in the pupae for 7 to 8 months, and once the first-aged larva becomes an adult, its lifespan is only two months. However, in just two months, it can cause great harm to trees or crops. Therefore, it is an insect that must be guarded against in forestry production and agricultural production.
It is said that Tianniu can use the chewing mouthpiece to bite the trunk into a slot, and then lay eggs in the slot, and can eat the bark, and can also open the bark and moth into the trunk, so that the trunk dies due to infection with pathogens. At the same time, the use value of the wood is reduced by the presence of moth holes.
In China, there are more than 2200 kinds of tianniu, and they are distributed throughout the country. According to relevant information, there are 28 kinds of Tianniu that harm mulberry trees; 25 kinds of Tianniu that harm willow and poplar trees; 18 kinds of Tianniu that harm citrus fruit trees; and 23 species of Tianniu that harm pine trees. Among the types of Tianniu that exist in China, the more common ones are Xingtianniu, Mulberry Tianniu, Bare shoulder Xingtianniu, Peach-necked Tianniu, White-ribten Tianniu, Red-edged Tianniu, Cloud-spotted White-striped Tianniu, Bamboo-edged Tiger Tianniu, Deep Mountain Tianniu, etc.
Because the harm of tianniu to forestry production and agricultural production is very large, we have carried out activities to eliminate tianniu here. I remember that when I was still in the production team, the production captain mobilized the members of the society to look for and arrest the Tianniu in the woods in their spare time, and the members and masses could remember a work point for every 10 Tianniu. However, because the Tianniu is not easy to catch, there are not many members who can catch 10 of them. Under the circumstance that many members of the community could not earn their wages, the activity of eliminating the Tianniu had to be forced to stop. Since then, the production team has not carried out this activity again.
In short, although the tianniu can be eaten after roasting, it is a delicacy in the minds of many children. But because it is a pest, it is still hoped that in the case of continuous progress in agricultural control measures, in the near future, people will be able to completely eliminate the tianniu.