212 



NATURAL HISTORY. 



[CH 



XII. 



pouncing upon a caterpillar, walking over its body, 

 stopping at certain parts, and wounding it with the 

 little sabre-like ovipositor. It is in vain the cater- 

 pillar turns and twists itself about ; the ichneumon 

 is not at all discomposed, but reiterates the wounds 

 in thirty or forty different places, and in each depo- 

 ltes an egg. These are placed deep enough to 

 allow the caterpillar to change its skin without get- 

 ting rid of the parasitical young of its enemy. After 

 a time, the caterpillar is covered with little inequali- 

 ties, which grow higher and higher, so that it pre- 



sents a hideous figure. Its body is studded with the 

 larvae of the ichneumon, protruding themselves per- 

 pendicularly as soon as they emerge ; the pain occa- 

 sioned by thirty or forty larvae thus boring into its 

 carcass at one time soon causes the caterpillar to 

 die in a sort of convulsion. The larvae set about 

 spinning their cocoons round the carcass, and after- 

 ward undergo their allotted changes. 



These are gregarious; and when the caterpillar 

 is opened, may be found equally developed and regu- 

 larly arranged in its interior. The miracle is, that 

 the caterpillar, thus perforated, should not die : were 



