Defn: Of or pertaining to the Ichneumonidæ, or ichneumon flies.
Some ichneumon files have a long ovipositor fitted to pierce the eggs or larvæ of other insects, in order to lay their own eggs within the same.
Defn: A group of parasitic Hymenoptera, including the ichneumon flies, which destroy the larvæ and pupæ of insects.
Defn: An ichneumon (Herpestes galera) native of Southern Africa and Madagascar.
Defn: A species of ichneumon (Herpestes griseus), native of India.
Let me put before you what is, perhaps, the most mysterious illustration which we have under this heading, wherein the Ichneumon Fly cannot even get sight of its prey, nor employ any sense similar to our own for its detection.
These cocoons, if kept, will produce in due time specimens of the Ichneumon Fly, and these will in their turn go about their murderous work as soon as their proper hunting season comes round again.
These minute cocoons may be kept under a wine glass and, from each a minute Ichneumon Fly, with (if a female) its sharp ovipositor, will emerge in due time.
It obviously must have decided advantages in preserving the eggs from attack by ants, spiders, Ichneumon flies, and other enemies.
In some cases, however, the chrysalids seem to be attacked, especially by certain Ichneumon flies.
The parasite larva now changes to a pupa, either inside or outside the skin of the caterpillar, and a little later changes again to an adult Ichneumon fly.
A special group of Ichneumon flies, called the Microgasters, contains many parasites that have this peculiarity.
The simplest are those of the large Ichneumon flies: The mother fly lays an egg beneath the skin of the caterpillar.
These are much larger than the Chalcid flies and are called Ichneumon flies.
Some ichneumon files have a long ovipositor fitted to pierce the eggs or larvæ of other insects, in order to lay their own eggs within the same.
In 1832 a livingichneumon was brought to Haverhill, and was on exhibition at Frinksborough, a section of Haverhill now known as "the borough," on the bank of the river above the railroad bridge.
The Egyptian species eats crocodiles' eggs, so that Diodorus Siculus remarks that but for the ichneumon there would have been no sailing on the Nile.
Then the watchful ichneumon "whippeth" into the monster's mouth and "shooteth" himself down his throat as quick as an arrow.
This creature--the ichneumon of the ancients--occupies a most important place in the classical and mediaeval bestiaries.
The ichneumon flies are the dread of all other insects, most of whose adaptations for self-preservation are directed against this insidious and universal enemy to insect life.
Perhaps even more numerous are the ichneumon flies, whose service in the world seems to be to keep the insect hosts down to the number possible to exist and at the same time to allow men and other animals to live.
So first he sneaked in here and put an ichneumon fly in my breeding-cage.
If you found an ichneumon fly there," retorted Boomly, "you probably hatched it in mistake for a butterfly!
It is this display of instinctive ingenuity that Lucan[2] celebrates where he paints the ichneumon diverting the attention of the asp, by the motion of his bushy tale, and then seizing it in the midst of its confusion.
Footnote 1: For an account of the encounter between the ichneumon and the venomous snakes of Ceylon, see Pt.
Yet an Ichneumon and a beetle (Clerus apiarius) both contrive to introduce their eggs into the cells, and the larvae proceeding from them devour their inhabitants[766].
The little Ichneumon then repeats her operations until she has darted into her victim the requisite number of eggs.
The activeIchneumon braves every danger, and does not desist until her courage and address have ensured subsistence for one of her future progeny.
The construction of the sting or ovipositor with which the different species of Ichneumon are provided, is not less nicely adapted to its various purposes.
A near relative of the bee, called the ichneumon fly, does man indirectly considerable good because of its habit of laying its eggs and rearing the young in the bodies of caterpillars which are harmful to vegetation.
An ichneumon fly boring in a tree to lay its eggs in the burrow of a boring insect harmful to that tree.
Classification of the ichneumon flies, or the superfamily Ichneumonoidea.
Unfortunately, its usefulness as a means of keeping the roach in check by destroying the egg capsules is greatly impaired by the occurrence of another ichneumon fly (Entedon hagenowi), which is parasitic upon the first.
Then a large ichneumon almost crossed my feet and ran into a cleft; and, while endeavouring to trace him, I was amazed to see a brown Syrian Bear clumsily but rapidly clamber down the rocks and cross the ravine.
The author has in the long passage, a part of which is here quoted, mentioned that the ichneumon takes its opportunity of entering the jaws of the Crocodile as it lies with its mouth open against the beams of the sun.
The helpless aphis, which is the scourge of the vegetable kingdom, has to contend with many: the principal are the coccinella, the ichneumon aphidum, and the musca aphidivora.
This insect belongs to the order "Hymenoptera," and is of the Ichneumon tribe, being a variety of upward of four hundred species of that interesting fly.
The name of Ichneumon has been applied to them from the service they do us by destroying caterpillars, plant-lice, and other insects; as the Ichneumon or Mangouste destroys the crocodile in the East.
One of the kinds of the ichneumon fly deposits her eggs within the caterpillar of this Butterfly, and they are there hatched.
According to Aristotle and Pliny the Ichneumon first coats its body with a coating of mud, in which it wallows, and then with this armour can defy the serpent.
For the ichneumon being nothing afraid of this great bravado, receiveth the encounter, and taking the head of the aspe in his mouth biteth that off to prevent the casting out of her poison.
She told the driver to stop; and Agnes distinctly saw the Ichneumon her mother had alluded to.
The mother ichneumon knows perfectly how to discover the beetle which bores into our furniture, and winged ichneumons have often been seen to proceed from worm-eaten wood.
The young ichneumon devours its nurse piecemeal, organ after organ; and for fear that death should supervene too quickly, the mother takes care to chloroform the victim beforehand to make her last longer.
Nor is the ichneumon a carnivorous animal, for the true beast of prey cares nothing at any period of his existence for the life of his victim.
But when the larva of an ichneumon devours, organ after organ, the caterpillar which serves him as a nurse, and at last eats her entirely, can we call him a parasite?
The eggs of theIchneumon fly hatch first and feed upon the eggs of the spider.
Four such Ichneumon flies have been found to attack the garden-spider, and no kind of spider seems exempt.
It was hanging from a thread, down which the Ichneumon fly was seen to crawl.
Moreover, Ichneumon flies do not confine their attention to cocoons, but often attack well-grown spiders.
Secondly, there are numerousIchneumon flies which attack and parasitise spiders' cocoons, piercing them with their ovipositors and laying their eggs inside.
Neither rats nor snakes will enter a house in which a tame ichneumon is retained, and allowed, as is usual, to range about at pleasure.
The ichneumon is not only domesticated with facility, if obtained at an early age, but becomes extremely affectionate.
When the snake is in that state, the ichneumon rushes forward, and, by seizing its throat, or the back of its head, soon lays the envenomed reptile lifeless at its command.
The Ichneumonnumbers some fifteen genera, and sixty species.
Captain Brown records an experiment in which the ichneumon was placed in a room with a poisonous serpent which it tried to avoid.
On the two being removed to the open air, the ichneumon is said to have immediately darted at the serpent and destroyed it, afterwards retiring to the wood and eating a portion of the plant said to be an antidote to the serpent's venom.
The Egyptian Ichneumon much resembles the cat in its habits and manners and is so deadly a foe to reptiles and vermin, that it is domesticated with a view to their destruction.
The best known of these is the greyIchneumon which comes from India or adjacent countries.
Though perfectly tame in captivity, the natural instincts of the ichneumon are only dormant, as the following illustration will show.
The Ichneumon is about the size of the domestic cat and of a dark silver grey colour.
The above list will hopefully give you a few useful examples demonstrating the appropriate usage of "ichneumon" in a variety of sentences. We hope that you will now be able to make sentences using this word.
