HIE ICHNEUMON FLY". 
33o 
Though this instrument is to all appearance slender and 
feeble, yet it is found to be a weapon of great force and effi- 
cacy. There is scarcely any substance which it will not 
pierce; and, indeed, it is seldom seen but employed in 
penetration. The male is unprovided with such a sting, 
while the female uses it with great force and dexterity, 
brandishing it when caught, from side to side, and very often 
wounding those who thought they held her with the great- 
est security. 
All the flies of this tribe are produced in the same manner, 
and owe their birth to the destruction of some other insect, 
within whose body they have been deposited, and upon 
whose vitals they have preyed, till they came to matu- 
rity. There is no insect whatever which they will not 
attack, in order to leave their fatal present in its body ; the 
caterpillar, the gnat, and even the spider himself, so formida- 
ble to others, is often made the unwilling fosterer of their 
destructive progeny. 
About the middle of summer, when other insects are found 
in great abundance, the ichneumon isseen flying busily about, 
and seeking proper objects upon whom to deposit its progeny. 
As there are various kinds of this fly, so they seem to have 
various appetites. Some are found to place their eggs within 
the aurelia of some nascent insect, others place them within 
the nest which the wasp had curiously contrived for its own 
young ; and as both are produced at the same time, the young 
of the ichneumon not only devours the young wasp, but the 
whole supply of worms, which the parent had carefully pro- 
vided for its provision. But the greatest number of the ich- 
neumon tribeare seen settlingupon the backof thecaterpillar, 
and darting at different intervals, their stings into its body. 
It often happens, that the caterpillar survives the worm state 
of the infant ichneumon, and then they change into a chry- 
salis, enclosed in its body till the time of their delivery ap- 
proaches, when they burst their prisons, and fly away. The 
caterpillar, however, is irreparably destroyed, it never changes 
into a chrysalis, but dies shortly after from the injuries it had 
sustained. 
The Ant. Though the number of two-winged flies be 
very great, and the naturalists have taken some pains to de- 
scribe their characters and varieties; yet there is such a si- 
militude in their forms and manners, that in a work like this, 
one description must serve for all. We now, therefore, come 
to a species of four- winged insects, that are famous from all 
antiquity for their social and industrious habits, that are 
