Ichneumon

“ 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. It sometimes happens that the ichneumon receives a bite, when he immediately relinquishes his object, and seeks among the neighbouring verdure for some root, of which he eats, and, after rolling 188himself in the soil, returns to the charge with unabated keenness. Should the snake have retired, the little quadruped speedily scents him out, and rarely fails to revenge himself for his past danger. ”

“ The whole tribe of Ichneumon are celebrated for their courage; a small fly will not hesitate to attack the largest cockroach, who evinces the greatest terror at sight of his well-known enemy; but the greatest proof of valor in a fly is displayed in the war of the ichneumon against the spider.
There is a great variety of this insect in Ceylon, from the large black species, the size of the hornet down to the minute tinsel-green fly, no bigger than a gnat; but every one of these different species wages perpetual war against the arch enemy of flies. ”

“ The Spanish ichneumon (Herpestes widdringtoni) , being peculiar to the Peninsula, deserves a passing remark; it is a strange, grizzly-grey beast, shaggy as a badger, but more slim in build, with the brightest of bright black eyes, and a very long bushy tail. Owing to his habit of eating snakes and other reptiles (in preference, it would seem, to rabbits, &c.) , the ichneumon stinks beyond other beasts of prey. A large black ichneumon happened to be the first game that fell to the writer's rifle in Spain, and was carefully stowed in the mule-panniers—never to be seen again ”

“ Next after the Arsinoïte and Heracleotic Nomes, is the city of Hercules, in which the ichneumon is worshipped, in opposition to the Arsinoïtes, who worship crocodiles; [Pg 257] hence the canal and the lake Mœris is full of these animals; for they venerate them, and are careful to do them no harm: but the Heracleotæ worship the ichneumon, which is most destructive both to crocodiles and asps. The ichneumons destroy not only the eggs of the latter, but the animals themselves. The ichneumons are protected by a covering of mud, in which they roll, and then dry themselves in the sun. ”

“ It is at these moments that the ichneumon, seeing it fast asleep in consequence of the agreeable sensation thus produced, darts down its throat like an arrow, and eats away its intestines. [100]
Like the crocodile, but smaller even than the ichneumon, is the scincus, which is also produced in the Nile, and the flesh of which is the most effectual antidote against poisons. ”

“ As I have now told the story of the snake, it is well to give a little time to one of the snake's chief enemies, the little weasel-like animal known in Egypt as the Ichneumon and in India as the Mongoose. Larger than a cat, but with a long, slender body, and very quick in its movements, the ichneumon is death to snakes. I cannot say that it is proof against the snake's bite, but it jumps about in so lively a way that the snake gets no chance to bite it, and when it once gets its teeth in the snake's hide it soon puts an end to his career. ”

“ The ichneumon is fond of living by the sides of rivers. During the inundations it quits its habitation, and even seeks for prey near inhabited places. They walk without making any noise, and change their manner as occasion requires. Sometimes they carry their heads erect, foreshorten their bodies, and [333] rise upon their hind-legs; at other times they creep and lengthen their bodies like a serpent. ”

“ The ichneumon shows rare intelligence, inasmuch as she invariably deposits her eggs on the young members—the calves, as it were—of the herd; she seems to know that the older aphides would die before the ichneumon grubs arrived at a suitable age for pupation; hence she selects the young ones. She runs here and there about the colony until she finds a young aphis; then, curving her abdomen between her legs, she will quickly lay an egg on the body of the unconscious insect. ”

“ First of all, however, she has given to this pest but weak powers of sight, and has placed the eyes, not in the front of the head, so that it may see straight before it, but in the temples, so that it is more frequently put in motion by the approach of the footstep than through the sight. The ichneumon, however, is its enemy to the very death. ”

“ You may always know an ichneumon-fly by its quivering antennæ; they are never still for a moment while daylight lasts, and the fly itself may also be known by its long, slender body with a hairlike waist. Some of the species are so minute that they lay several of their eggs within a butterfly’s egg, and it affords quite enough food for the ichneumon-grubs until they are full grown.
Others again are large insects with such a long and powerful tube that they can pierce through solid wood in order to reach the concealed grub in which they desire to lay their eggs. ”

“ A live larva has no odor. And, besides, the most difficult part is not to find out whether or not a suitably plump larva is there under the bark, at such and such a depth; it is also necessary to ascertain whether another ichneumon egg has not already been laid in the body of the coveted worm, as one larva would be insufficient for two nurslings. An egg deposited in some fat worm is not seen, heard, or felt; that is very evident. Nevertheless the ichneumon never plunges its terebra through the bark into a larva already occupied. ”

“ The Indian ichneumon, a small creature, looking like both the weasel and the mongoose, is of great use to the natives because of its great hatred of snakes, which would otherwise make every footstep of the traveller most dangerous. This little creature, on seeing a snake, no matter how large, will instantly dart on it, and seize it by the throat, if he finds himself in an open place, where he has a chance of running to a certain herb, which he some way knows to be an antidote against the poison of the bite, if he should happen to receive one. ”

“ If some other ichneumon has preceded her, she recognizes the fact at once, and will not deposit her egg, but will go in search of another grub. When the egg is hatched, the larva feeds on the body of its host, carefully avoiding the vital organs. The caterpillar retains just enough vitality to assume the pupa state, and then dies. The chrysalis discloses, not a butterfly, but an ichneumon.
The mason wasp (Epipone spinipes) builds its cells and lays its eggs, one in each cell. It then hunts and procures spiders, which it deposits in the cells and then seals the openings. ”

“ The hair upon the feet is very short and thin, and they are nearly as naked as those of the common rat. The tail of the Ichneumon is very long, usually one-sixth longer than its body, and upon its extremity is a tuft of very long black hair. ”

“ 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. Their method of life is to deposit their eggs on or in the bodies of other insects, usually in the larval stage, where they hatch and thrive by the slow death of the host. 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. ”

“ There is an immense variety of vermin throughout Ceylon, including many of that useful species the ichneumon, who in courage and strength stands first of his tribe. The destruction of snakes by this animal renders him particularly respected, and no person ever thinks of destroying him. No matter how venomous the snake, the ichneumon, or mongoose, goes straight at him, and never gives up the contest until the snake is vanquished. ”

“ The slight puncture is scarcely felt by the grub, which continues to eat and grow; the inserted egg, however, presently hatches, and produces the ichneumon-grub, which begins to feed on the fat of the wasp-grub, instinctively avoiding the vital parts, until the latter has attained nearly its full size, and is ready to pass into the pupa state; when, its vigour being gone, it fails to accomplish the metamorphosis, the insidious intruder, now also full grown, taking its place, and by and by issuing from the hole a perfect Ichneumon. ”

“ The deadliest foe of the Puss Moth larva, however, is the ichneumon-fly, a parasitic [Pg 156] creature, which lays its eggs in living caterpillars, and lets its grubs hatch out inside them, so as to devour the host from within in the most ruthless fashion. There are many kinds of ichneumon-fly, some of them very minute: the one which attacks the Puss Moth in its larval stage is a comparatively big one. The fly lays its eggs behind the caterpillar's head, where the victim is powerless to dislodge them. ”

“ The end of its body is forked, and each fork is prolonged into a sort of tail, from which a red filament can be extruded and waved about at the will of the creature. In this way, and by its violent contortions, it may sometimes succeed in whipping off, as it were, the ichneumon that is attacking it, but it has another and more efficacious means of defending itself. An aperture in the skin behind the head communicates with a gland containing a clear fluid, forty per cent. ”

“ Horntail if she were not a young ichneumon fly.
“Young ichneumon?” repeated Mrs. Horntail. “Whoever heard of such a thing? A young ichneumon is as large as an old one. None of us insects grow after we leave our cocoons. When we are what you mean by young—babies, in other words—we are different. I thought you had learned that before now. Haven’t you had larvæ and pupæ explained to you?”
“Oh, yes,” said Ruth, “but I had forgotten. 157Of course you are different when you are first hatched, and then you get wings, while you sleep, but I thought maybe you grew even after you had wings.” ”

“ The mouth of this insect has jaws, but no sucking tongue. The antennæ contain more than thirty joints; and the abdomen is joined to the body by a slender pedicle. The ovipositor is enclosed in a cylindrical sheath, composed of two valves.
One distinguishing and striking characteristic of all the species of this kind of fly is the almost continual agitation of their antennæ. The name of Ichneumon has been applied to them from the service they do us by destroying caterpillars, plant-lice, and other insects; as{581} the Ichneumon or Mangouste destroys the crocodile in the East. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Bigelow introduced Mrs. Bird, Mrs. Swipes, and Mrs. Longbow to the Ichneumon, who did not happen to be present and hear the keeper's remarks, and repeated in low breath the information which he had just derived, with suitable and appropriate remarks of his own. For his part, he said, he was paid. He had seen the sacred animal called the Ichneumon; and he managed to weave [Pg 335] him into a sermon which he preached some weeks afterwards, in which he identified him as clearly as he did when inspecting the poster at the Eagle.
Jim Buzzard was present during all the exercises. ”

“ Like the Aphis, the Ichneumon, too, must learn to live for others, thus rising through selfishness to a purer and higher embodiment. If we pass a little later through the same cornfield, another insect, differing from, yet of the same general type as the prior parasite, may be seen running to and fro over the wheat-ears, tapping each tenanted abode with tremulously quivering antennæ, which, as well as the whole body, seem to vibrate with excitement. ”

“ To be a withered leaf is my first line of defence; if the ichneumon buzzes [Pg 216] nearer, I shift my ground and become a spider. I am the only caterpillar in the country with spider-legs; when they are stretched to their full length and quivering, they are worse to look at than the real thing. Should even [Pg 217] this fail me, I show the imitation scar on my fourth body-ring. That usually clinches the matter. The ichneumon fondly imagines that I am already occupied. So, if I am lucky, I turn at length to dingy pupa, and thus preserve my race.”
“Will you hear an amphibian?” said the toad. ”

“ In all probability the defensive attitude and the shower of formic acid are chiefly of use against these parasitic foes: for when an ichneumon-fly appears, the caterpillar assumes his "terrifying" attitude the moment it touches him, and faces full round to the foe with his false mask inflated. A very small quantity of the formic acid Professor Poulton found sufficient to kill an ichneumon: and there can be little doubt that this is its main object. ”

“ Another drama has to be played out ere the full life issues from the once living cradle whose contents it has absorbed and become, nor will it bear the image of that particular Ichneumon Fly that laid its little egg, some weeks ago, in the body that seemed so designed for it. ”

“ Buffon assumes that the Ichneumon has been brought to a state of domesticity. But he probably generalized from a single instance. The Pacha of Egypt has a tame lion; and many other instances might be cited. But the lion cannot be regarded as reduced to a domestic animal.
According to Pliny, the ichneumon was an object of veneration among the Egyptians. So also was the crocodile; these two determined enemies being equally objects of adoration. By the ancients, the ichneumon was said to watch the moment of the crocodile’s sleep ”