is PLATE MER. 
Ichneumons are the moft voracious of all the winged Infects;—in 
‘their nature, robuft and_ powerful, and armed with a formidable fting; 
they are the dread, and deftroyer of other tribes, and mortal enemies 
to each other; like the animal * whence their fignificant appellation is 
derived, they exift by rapine and plunder, and fupport their infant 
offspring on $e Mee of we Infects. 
The female bacislance, when ready to lay her eggs, is feen eagerly 
rufhing from one plant to another, if its prey offers, which is generally 
the Larva of the Phalena, Papilio, 2c. it darts down with the fero- 
“city of an eagle, and grafps the tender body in its claws; it is now 
in vain that the unwieldy animal attempts refiftance, as all its efforts 
are but the fport ofa favage conqueror: For raifing the body almoft 
upright, or into the form of a bow, the creature returns it in an in- 
“flant, arid dathes the’ fting-up to the’bafe, in the fofteft part of the ca- 
terpillar’ s body; this, if undifturbed, it will repeat thirty or forty times, 
always choofing a frefh fpot for every new wound, and often entirely 
fcarifying the Infeét. The ftung animal refutes to eat, and fometimes 
its illnefs terminates in its death, though generally the eggs are ma- 
tuved, and’ the Infe&s produced ‘from the living body, fo that if it 
furvives its mifery, and the wounds heal, the heat of the body ripens 
the embryos, and the young Ichneumons gnaw, and tear large paflages 
through the. body, to complete their delivery. July and Auguf are 
the Months thofe fpecies we have defcribed are on the wing. 
* The Ichneumon isa well known animal in oa particularly near the rivet 
Nile, and are ufeful for deftroying the Eggs of the Crocodile, &c. 
