Swarming alates of termite Macrotermes sp. has been accepted as food among people of Benishangul Gumuz zone in west Ethiopia bordering with Sudan. The preference seems to be for the reproductive caste. We assessed the nutritional composition of nymph and alate of Macrotermes sp. of Ethiopia. The adult contained higher amino acids (31%) compared to nymph (21%). However, the distribution of amino acids in the protein was similar (ap. 4:6 essential to non-essential amino acids). Both stages tend to have high fat contents (50%). Fat supplement could be a possible reason behind the human consumption of termites. Beside the bio-prospection of termite as food or oil source, termite foraging would have important evolutionary biology due to their significant amount of energy-yielding nutrients which could presumably be critical resource for development of larger brained hominines.

• Sampat Ghosh(Institute of Agricultural Science & Technology, Andong National University)
• DanielGetahunDebelo(Departmen of Biology, Adama Science and Technology University)
• ChuleuiJung(Department of Plant Medicine, Andong National University)