ArticleInsects2021
Cultural Significance of Beetles in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Article in Insects, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed, 16 citations in OpenAlex.
- Cinderella Biodiversity: Three Decades of Monitoring Reveal Earlier Emergence and Increasing Abundance in Undervalued and Sparsely Recorded Flying Insects and Ballooning Spiders.Global change biology · 2026Article
- Beyond household meals: a game-based approach to unveiling the role of insects in Malagasy children's diets.Journal of ethnobiology and ethnomedicine · 2026Article
- An overview of the research progress on Mylabris: entomology, active ingredients, traditional use, pharmacology, clinical application, pharmacokinetics, toxicity and detoxification strategies.Chinese medicine · 2025Review
- Review
- Investigation of 9 True Weevil (Biomimetics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Effect of cooking methods on nutritional value and microbial safety of edible rhinoceros beetle grubs (Heliyon · 2024Article
- Consumptive and Non-Consumptive Uses of Water Beetles (Insects · 2023Article
- Cultural significance of locusts, grasshoppers, and crickets in sub-Saharan Africa.Journal of ethnobiology and ethnomedicine · 2022Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
1 author at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
An overview is given of how beetles are utilised, perceived, and experienced in daily life across sub-Saharan Africa. More than 300 people from 27 countries were interviewed and the results were compared with literature findings. Both the adults and larvae of many beetle species are eaten, mainly from the families Curculionidae, Buprestidae, Cerambycidae, Dytiscidae and Scarabaeidae. Some beetle species are used for medicinal purposes. The use of breast-shaped water beetles by adolescent girls to stimulate breast growth could be due to superstition or the effect of the defensive secretion containing steroid hormones. Blister beetles contain cantharidin, which influences the urinary tract, and is therefore used as an aphrodisiac and for treating venereal disease. Throughout Africa children play with beetles by letting them fly on a string. In the Sahel, the hard work of dung beetles is an inspiration for stories. Fireflies are generally associated with ghosts and witches, likely because the glowing of the beetles is interpreted as magical. Many beetle groups are brightly and attractively coloured and are therefore used in ceremonies and commerce. This type of indigenous knowledge, revealed in stories provided by older people, is rapidly disappearing due to urbanisation.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.