THE ICHNEUMON FLY. 



sect provision, contrived to disable the worms 

 from resistance, or whether they wen: at first 

 incapable of any, is not known. Certain it 

 is, that the young glutton feasts upon the liv- 

 ing spoil without any control ; his game lies 

 at his hand, and he devours one after the 

 other as the calls of ippetite incite him. The 

 life of the young animal is therefore spent in 

 the most luxurious manner, till its whole stock 

 of worms is exhausted, when the time of irs 

 transformation begins to approach ; and then 

 spinning a silken web, it continues fixed in its 

 cell till the sun calls it from its dark abode the 



ensuing summer. 



The wasps of Europe are very mischievous, 

 yet they are innocence itself when compared 

 to those of the tropical climates, wiiere all the 

 insect tribes are not only numerous, but large, 

 voracious, and formidable. Those of the 

 W st Indies are thicker, and twice as lo-ig, 

 as the common bee; they are of a gray 

 colour, striped with yellow, and armed with 

 a very dangerous sting. They make their 



cells in the manner of a honey-comb, in which 

 thi- young ones are hatched and bred. They 

 generally hang their nests by threads, coni- 

 po ed of the same substance with the cells, to 

 the branches of trees, and the eaves of houses. 

 They are seen every where in great abun- 

 dance, descending like fruit, particularly pears, 

 of which shape they are, and as large as one's 

 head. , The inside is divided into three round 

 stories full of cells, each hexagonal, like those 

 of a honey-comb. In some of the islands 

 these insects are so very numerous, that their 

 nests are stuck up in this manner, scarce two 

 feet asunder, and the inhabitants are in conti- 

 nual apprehension from their accidental re- 

 sentment. It .-ometinies happens that no pre- 

 cautions can prevent their attacks, and the 

 pain of their sting is almost insupportable. 

 Those who have felt it, think it more terrible 

 than even that of a scorpion ; the whole visage 

 swells, and the features are so disfigured, that 

 a pel-son is scarcely known by his most inti- 

 mate acquaintance. 



CHAPTER CXXll. 



OF THE ICHNEUMON FLY. 



EVERY rank of insects, how voracious 

 soever, have enemies that are terrible to them, 

 and that revenge upon them the injuries done 

 upon the rest of the animated creation. The 

 wasp, as we have seen, is very troublesome to 

 man, and very formidable to the insect tribe; 

 but the ichneumon fly (of which there are 

 in inv varieties) fears not the wasp itself; it 

 enters its retreats, plunders its habitations, and 

 takes possession of that cell for its own young, 

 which the wa-p had laboriously built for a 

 dearer posterity. 



Though there are many different kinds of 

 this insect, yet the most formidable, and that 

 best known, is called the common ichneumon, 

 with four wings, like the bee, a long, slender, 

 bhek body, and a three-forked tail, consisting 

 of bristles; the two outermost black, and the 

 middle- nost red. This fly receives its name 

 from the little qu idruped, which is found to 

 be so destructive to the crocodile, as it bears 



a strong similitude in its courage and rapa- 

 city. 



Though this instrument is, to all appearance, 

 slender and feeble, yet it is found to be a 

 weapon of great force and efficacy. There is 

 scarcely any substance which it will not 

 pierce ; and indeed it is seldom seen but em- 

 ployed in penetration. This is the weapon 

 of defence; this is employed in destroying its 

 prey ; and still more, by this the animal de- 

 posites her eggs wherever she thinks fit to lay' 

 them. As it is an instrument chiefly employ- 

 ed for this purpose, the male is unprovided 

 with such a sting, while the female uses it with 

 great force and dexterity, brandishing it \\ hen 

 caught, froiii side to side, and very often 

 wounding those who thought they held her 

 with the greatest security. 



All the flies of this tribe are produced in the 

 same manner, and owe their birth to the de- 

 struction of some other insect, within whose 

 5 U* 



