Volume 147, Issue 3, 3 June 2013, Pages 570–583
Pharmacological properties of blister beetles (Coleoptera: Meloidae) promoted their integration into the cultural heritage of native rural Spain as inferred by vernacular names diversity, traditions, and mitochondrial DNA
Abstract
Ethnopharmacological relevance
Beetles
of the family Meloidae (blister beetles) are often reported in
pharmacological literature because of their content of cantharidin.
Cantharidin has a long history in human medicine and was commonly
applied in the 19th and the early 20th centuries, although its use has
been progressively abandoned since then. Contrary to most, even common,
large species of Coleoptera, blister beetles of the genera Berberomeloe,
Physomeloe and to a lesser extent Meloe, are usually recognized and
often incorporated into local folk taxonomy by inhabitants of rural
areas in Spain.
Aim of the study
To
demonstrate the role that pharmacological properties of blister beetles
must have played in their integration in the culture of early Iberian
human societies, but also in the preservation of their identity until
today, a rare case for Spanish insects. To achieve this purpose we
document the diversity of vernacular names applied in rural areas of
Spain, and we determine, using molecular data, the antiquity of the
presence of two species of the better-known blister beetle in rural
Spain, Berberomeloe majalis and Berberomeloe insignis.
Materials and methods
We
try to document the extent of traditional knowledge of meloid beetles
in rural areas by interviewing about 120 people from villages in central
and southern Spain. We also use mitochondrial DNA sequences (Cytochrome
Oxidase I and 16SrRNA) obtained from several populations of two species
of the better known blister beetle in rural Spain, Berberomeloe majalis and Berberomeloe insignis,
to determine whether these beetles were already present in the Iberian
Peninsula when earlier ancient cultures were developing.
Results
Our
results show that, based on mitochondrial DNA, blister beetles of the
genus Berberomeloe were present in the Iberian Peninsula long before
humans arrived, so ancient Iberian cultures were in contact with the
same beetle species occurring now in rural areas. On the other hand,
people interviewed in rural communities provided us with more than 28
different vernacular names, a few short songs incorporated to local
folklore, and some therapeutic uses.
Conclusions
Current
knowledge of blister beetles of the family Meloidae in rural Spain was
likely developed as a consequence of their pharmacological properties;
we hypothesize this knowledge was inherited from ancient pre-Christian
Iberian native cultures as part of their traditional therapeutic
traditions. It is possible then, that current vernacular names and
traditional songs are the only remnants of an ancient knowledge of
pharmacological uses of meloid beetles, verbally transmitted from the
ancestral cultures to modern day rural Spain. Our work suggests that
this legacy, part of the European Cultural Heritage, is disappearing
fast, in parallel to the loss of traditional agricultural techniques.
Graphical abstract
Keywords
- Ethnozoology;
- Cantharidin;
- Cytochrome Oxidase;
- 16SrRNA;
- Phylogeny;
- Europe
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