Classification of the ichneumon flies, or the superfamily ichneumonoidea.
The ichneumon may be seen busily searching the bushes for her victim.
The ichneumon, an animal famous for destroying reptiles' eggs, and is worshipped by the Egyptians.
He was just a shade too light for nature, and the ichneumon has a pretty sense of colour.
The caterpillar lives with the ichneumon grubs within it usually until nearly time for its pupation.
“Oh, that plant that the ichneumon resorts to when bitten,” exclaimed Macallan.
Apparently the ichneumon fly (Ophion obscurum), and not the true sawfly, is meant.
After the ichneumon flies had disappeared, a new difficulty arose.
The little ichneumon then repeats her operations until she has darted into her victim the requisite number of eggs.
This is an act of cruelty which resembles that of the ichneumon, to which it may well be compared.
1570s, originally a weasel-like animal in Egypt, Latinized from Greek ikhneumon, literally "searcher, tracker," perhaps because it hunts crocodile eggs, from ikhneuein "hunt for, track," from ikhnos "a track, footstep, trace, clue," of unknown origin. Used by Aristotle for a species of wasp that hunts spiders (a sense in English from 1650s).
