Along with much-needed rain and sparkling green cantera, tropical storm Beatriz also brought the one-day-a-year appearance of chicatanas (aka, tzicatana, tzicatl).
What, you might ask are chicatanas? They are giant flying ants that emerge with the first rains of the season — and by giant, I mean about 4 cm from the head to the tip of the wings for the females. (As in much of the insect world, males are smaller.) Known by the Nahuatl long before the arrival of the Spanish, they were mentioned in the 16th-century Florentine Codex which talked about the tzicatana living below ground and cultivating fungus to eat.
By this morning, the rain had stopped and when I returned from an early errand, I found chicatanas — queens (wings) and soldiers (wingless with vicious front pincers) — crawling around on my terrace and balcony. There were probably many more earlier, but I had been in a hurry and hadn’t noticed. By 10:30 AM they were gone.
Oh, and have I mentioned that they are a delicacy and a great source of protein? I’ve had chicatana salsa and chicatana mole several times. Below is Mole de Chicatanas I sampled during the Mole Festival in 2014. It’s from the Sierra Sur region of Oaxaca and made with chicatanas, pork ribs or loin, chile costeño, peanuts, and much more. It was yummy (and I was a picky eater as a child!), so I had it again at last year’s festival.
If you won’t take my word, check out this Bizarre Foods episode set in Oaxaca. (Chicatanas start at 1 min. 40 sec.) By the way, these are the dreaded leaf-cutter ants. However, it is the much smaller workers who can strip a tree overnight and are the bane of gardeners here. At least their queens and soldiers are good for something!
Post script: On a somber note, tropical storm Beatriz also brought flooding, mudslides, more downed trees, collapsed roads, and a current death toll of three.
Interesting. I clicked on the Bizarre Foods link and got a message that it is blocked in my country. Also interesting…
Hmmm… That’s usually what happens to me down here. You might be able to find it on YouTube. Otherwise, you can see it in 4 months. 😉
Go to Bizarre Foods Oaxaca and you’ll get segments of the Zimmern show, including the one about chicatanas. Provecho!
Yes! I was actually on the flight from Houston to Oaxaca with him and his crew and, in a blog post, mused a chicatana episode might be in the works. 😉