Maeng in Kham Mueang: Insect Names and Edible Insects

In Kham Mueang, maeng (แมงฯ, Kham Mueang reading maeng) covers almost every small animal without a backbone. The dictionary explains that Lanna people call both the eight-legged "maeng" (spiders, scorpions) and the six-legged "insects" (flies, bees, wasps) by the same word, maeng. The word is also used for fruit that insects have bored into: ba muang pen maeng is a mango with a grub inside.

This article gathers Kham Mueang names for maeng from the Moradok Lanna dictionary: insects people eat, insects of the house and the fields, insects whose names do not start with maeng, and insects that, people believe, announce the seasons.

Insects people eat

Lanna people have eaten insects for a very long time. Many have their own season and their own way of being gathered and cooked. The dictionary records the names of the insects, their eggs and the dishes made from them. This table only includes words the dictionary marks as edible.

The dictionary also has words for gathering insects. Si mot som (สิม฿ดฯส้฿มฯ) is knocking down weaver-ant eggs: a basket tied to the end of a long pole is used to jab the nest so the eggs fall in. The nest itself is hang mot som (รังฯม฿ดฯส้฿มฯ). Dishes made from these insects turn up in songs too, such as giant-water-bug chilli dip and red-ant-egg salad in Kin Lam Kin Lam.

Insects of the house and the fields

The insects we meet every day in the house, the garden and the rice fields have their own Kham Mueang names, many of them nothing like central Thai.

Some insects are named for their shape. Maeng ma (แมงฯม้า), literally "horse insect", is the praying mantis: the dictionary explains that when it catches prey it lifts its front legs like a stalking horse lifting its forelegs. Maeng saen tin (แมงฯแสนฯตีนฯ), "hundred-thousand-feet insect", is the millipede, an animal with very many legs (also tuek tao, ตืกฯตาวฯ). Maeng tang mo (แมงฯต่างฯหํมฯอฯ) is an orange-red millipede that curls into a ring like a tang mo, a pot stand.

Insects whose names don't start with maeng

Many familiar insects have Kham Mueang names without maeng in front at all. Some begin with kam, others with chak.

Insects that announce the seasons

The dictionary records Khon Mueang beliefs that some insects can tell the weather. Mae daet (แม่แดดฯ), "mother sunshine", is a beetle believed to appear when the hot sunny weather begins. Mae fon (แม่ฝ฿นฯ), "mother rain", is a long-horned brown beetle believed to bring rain soon after it flies in or calls (also lam fon). And maeng man come out of their nests when the rain falls around May.

Summary

• Maeng in Kham Mueang covers both arachnids and insects, and also the mark of a creature boring into fruit, as in ba muang pen maeng.
• Insects the dictionary says are edible include maeng man, mot som (teng and yaep), maeng da, maeng nun, maeng chon, khi kung and maeng niao.
• Household insects include maeng ngon (fly), maeng sap (cockroach), maeng phing (gnat), and maeng ma, the praying mantis.
• Some names don't begin with maeng: kam bi (dragonfly), kam boe (butterfly), kam pung (spider), chak taen (grasshopper), phoeng (bee).
• Mae daet and mae fon are insects the Khon Mueang believe announce the seasons.

Look up more insect names in the Moradok Lanna dictionary (in Thai), read more animal vocabulary in Fish Names in Kham Mueang and Bird Names in Kham Mueang, or learn the dishes made with insects in Kin Lam Kin Lam.

Sources

• Moradok Lanna dictionary (in Thai): แมง · แมงมัน · มดส้ม · แมงม้า · ก่ำบี้
• All photos are from Wikimedia Commons as credited under each picture; they illustrate the words and are not species identifications.