THE ICHNEUMONS. 239 



exception of the majority of a curious small group to 

 which I shall hereafter refer as a subtribe, they all 

 select for this purpose the bodies of other insects, or 

 other air-breathing Articulata, in the interior of which 

 the maggot-like larvae for the most part live as pa- 

 rasites. Hence the insects of this tribe have been de- 

 nominated Entomophaga ; but we may perhaps with 

 more propriety adopt Mr. Westwood's term of SPI- 

 CULIFERA, to designate them, as this rests upon an 

 unexceptionable structural character. Linnueus de- 

 nominated these parasitic creatures Ichneumons, in 

 allusion to the fabled powers of destroying the Cro- 

 codile, which were attributed by the ancients to the 

 famous Ichneumon (Herpestes Ichneumon] of Egypt. 

 But the benefits conferred by these insects upon the 

 human race, in keeping down the number of other 

 insects, which, without such check, would speedily 

 exert a most injurious effect upon our crops of all 

 kinds (for they confine their attention more especially 

 to the herbivorous species), cannot possibly be over- 

 rated; and this comparison with the Mammalian 

 enemy of the Crocodile, happy as it is, is rather de- 

 rogatory to their importance than otherwise. The 

 insects most subject to their attacks are the Cater- 

 pillars of the Butterflies and Moths, many of which 

 are amongst the most destructive of our insect ene- 

 mies, and these they have the art of discovering in 

 their most secret recesses, even those species which 

 feed in concealment, being detected by their active 

 enemy and inoculated with the fatal eggs, the off- 

 spring from which is destined in the end to effect 

 their destruction. 



But the ravages of the Ichneumons are by no means 

 confined to the Lepidopterous Butterflies and Moths : 



