The turu, also known as maggot, pagurian or termite-the-Sea, is a bivalve mollusk of the family teredinídeos. It presents wormlike appearance similar to an earthworm, and one of the ends with valves provided grooves of teeth, which are used to open galleries in submerged woods, then forming their colonies.
The shipworms live mainly in mangroves, feeding on their trunks or rotten and fallen trees in the water. They can devour the wood through their denticles on the head. They are like wet wood termites, they are found in the hulls of ships, causing them damage. Its meat is edible and can be consumed in raw form, cooked or in soups. This delicacy is part of Pará and Amazon cuisines, mainly on the island of Marajó and surroundings also being appreciated in Maranhão and Amapá.É a food rich in calcium and iron, whose flavor is described as similar to shellfish such as oysters. In the Epic of Gilgamesh (2700 B.C.) there was talk of the need to protect vessels against attack teredos. One of the species is the Teredo navalis.
Amerindians enjoyed feeding the turu, which termed Teredo, just as they did with many other invertebrate animals [5] In the writings of Father John Daniel (1722-1776) contained the following account:
"Turu is the plague of the vessels of the Amazon, although it is not only the Amazon. It is similar to the worm and worm itself is water, is white, very thin, and as soft and flexible as a thin casing; and makes wonder how such a contemptible little animal has so much strength, and activity roa, pass, and drill vessels, and any tree, putting it as a riddle! (...) Are animals so contemptible, and the Indians of the Amazon so disgusting, do these worms, or roundworms, little plates of great pet, and appreciation, and even many whites; for what will ebb in the mud beaches, open the rotten sticks that are filled rivers, and in short time fill plates or bowls, who take home, stew, and regale. "
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