Kosher locusts are types of orthopterans deemed permissible for consumption under the laws of kashrut (Jewish dietary law). While the consumption of most insects is generally forbidden, Leviticus excepts four categories of flying insects (for that reason, the term "kosher locust" is somewhat of a misnomer). However, the identity of those species is in dispute. Before their emigration to Israel in the mid-20th century, the Jewish communities of Yemen and parts of northern Africa, ate certain species which they preserved a tradition to be kosher, and they continue to do so occasionally to this day.
Biblical source The general rule regarding flying insects is as follows:
All winged swarming things that go upon all fours are a detestable thing unto you. However, an exception is made for four categories of flying insects:
Yet these may ye eat of all winged swarming things that go upon all fours, which have jointed legs above their feet, with which to leap upon the earth. These of them ye may eat: the arbeh after its kinds, and the salam after its kinds, and the hargol after its kinds, and the hagav after its kinds. But all winged swarming things, which have four feet, are a detestable thing unto you. The identity of the four permitted types is difficult to ascertain. The terms used in the Bible refer to color and broad morphological generalities shared by many Middle-Eastern species. Using primarily color to identify insect species is a notoriously unreliable approach. Insects that come to adulthood will have slightly different colors based on season, diet, and prevailing climate.
Rabbinic sources
Mishnah The Mishnah provides criteria by which these species may be identified:
Among the grasshoppers (hagavim): all that have four legs, and four wings, and [two additional] jumping legs, and its wings cover most of its body [are permitted]. Rabbi Yosi says: and its name must be hagav. Unlike the Bible (which permits certain named types of insect), this Mishnah lists physical characteristics – which are met by many species of grasshoppers, and every species of locust. However, Rabbi Yose's opinion is more restrictive: like the Bible, it requires a specific type name, not just physical characteristics.
Talmud The Talmud elaborates that the four categories mentioned in the biblical text contain subcategories: the phrase "the arbeh after its kinds" implies at least two kinds under the category of arbeh, and similarly for the other three types. The Talmud translates the four biblical names with then-contemporary Aramaic, and lists the additional kinds as follows:
Post-Talmudic Authorities Rabbi Yose's additional restriction is required by some rishonim. However, opinions differ on how it is to be understood. According to Tur, there must be a specific tradition that a particular insect is within the category of hagav. However, according to Maimonides, all that is needed is for the species to be referred to as a hagav or a translation of this term, such as "locust". Despite the general adherence of Yemenite Jews to the rulings of Maimonides, they were more stringent than Maimonides' opinion that merely recognizing a locust's features was sufficient to permit it. Rather, they ate only those locusts which they possessed a tradition of eating. It is unnecessary to have a "personal tradition" in order to eat locusts – one who travels to a place where the people do have a tradition may eat locusts there.
Identification
Arbeh Among Yemenite Jews "continuous tradition" exists for 3 species: desert locust (Schistocerca gregaria), migratory locust (Locusta migratoria), and Egyptian locust (Anacridium aegyptium). The most common locust consumed in both Yemen and Morocco was the desert locust (Schistocerca gregaria), whose color ranges from yellowish-green to grey, to reddish in colour when it reaches maturity. According to Prof. Zohar Amar, this was the only locust species for which the traditional identification is unquestionable, while for other species the reliability of local traditions is more speculative. Both the desert locust, and the less common migratory locust, are classified as arbeh. So too, presumably, is the Moroccan locust (Dociostaurus maroccanus), which may have been traditionally eaten by North African Jews. According to Yemenite Jewish tradition, the edible locust referred to in the Torah is identified by the figure resembling the Hebrew letter chet (ח) on the underside of the thorax. Some explain that a distinguishing characteristic of kosher grasshoppers is that they sometimes swarm.
Sol'am & Hargol The tradition of recognizing and eating hargol and sal'am was lost by Yemenite Jews (except Habbani Jews) prior to their migration to Israel in the mid-20th century. Amar speculates that sol'am might refer to the Acrida and Truxalis families, while hargol might refer to species in Tettigoniidae such as Decticus albifrons. In 1911, Abraham Isaac Kook, the chief rabbi of Ottoman Palestine, addressed a question to the rabbinic Court at Sana'a concerning their custom of eating grasshoppers, and whether this custom was observed by observing their outward features, or by simply relying upon an oral tradition.
The reply given to him by the court was as follows: "The grasshoppers which are eaten by way of a tradition from our forefathers, which happen to be clean, are well-known unto us. But there are yet other species which have all the recognizable features of being clean, yet we do practice abstaining from them. [Appendage]: The clean grasshoppers (Hebrew: חגבים) about which we have a tradition are actually three species having each one different coloration [from the other], and each of them are called by us in the Arabian tongue, ğarād (locusts). But there are yet other species, about which we have no tradition, and we will not eat them. One of which is a little larger in size than the grasshoppers, having the name of `awsham. There is yet another variety, smaller in size than the grasshopper, and it is called ḥanājir (katydids)."
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