NATURAL HISTORY. 



Order VI. HYMENOPT^RA.(Gr. 'T^v, a Membrane ; nrt-pov, a 



wing.) 



Family . . . Ichneumonidae. (Gr. 'Ixvevfiuv , a Hunter.) 

 PIMPLA. (Gr. Uiftfrlijpi, to fill.) 



Manifestator (Lat. a pointer out, the Ichneumon- fly. 



The ICHNEUMONS form a very large section. They are 

 most useful to mankind, as one ichneumon will destroy more 

 caterpillars than a man could kill in his lifetime. They do 

 not, as most other insects, deposit their eggs upon vegetable 

 or dead animal substances, but they actually bore holes in 

 other insects while they are still in the larva state, and 

 leave the eggs to hatch in their living receptacle. The most 

 common ichneumon is a very small insect, not so large as 

 an ordinary gnat. This little creature may be seen searching 

 for caterpillars. It generally selects the common cabbage 

 caterpillar, and sitting upon it, pierces with its sting, or 

 ovipositor as it is called, the skin of the caterpillar, and 

 deposits an egg. After repeating this operation many times 

 it flies off and the caterpillar proceeds as before in the great 

 business of its life, that is, eating, and continues in apparently 

 perfect health until the time for its change into the chrysalis 

 state occurs. The good condition of it, however, is merely 

 deception, for the offspring of the little ichneumon have all 

 this while been silently increasing in size, and feeding on the 

 fat, &c. of the caterpillar, but cautiously avoiding any vital 

 part, so that the plump appearance of the caterpillar is merely 



