| 释义 |
ichneumon|ɪkˈnjuːmən|
(Also 6 ichnewmon, 7 icnumon.)
[a. L. ichneumōn, a. Gr. ἰχνεύµων the ichneumon, also, a small kind of wasp that hunts spiders, lit. ‘tracker’, f. ἰχνεύειν to track or trace out, f. ἴχνος track, footstep. In F. ichneumon (16th c. in Hatz.-Darm.).]
1. A small brownish-coloured slender-bodied carnivorous quadruped, Herpestes (formerly Viverra) ichneumon, closely allied to the mongoose, and resembling the weasel tribe in form and habits. It is found in Egypt, where it feeds on small mammals and reptiles, but is especially noted for destroying the eggs of the crocodile, on which account it was held in veneration by the ancient Egyptians. (Also called Pharaoh's Rat, and formerly Indian Mouse.)
(With the early fabulous accounts cf. cockatrice, = calcatrix, in origin a L. translation of ἰχνεύµων.)
1572J. Bossewell Armorie iii. 17 b, Called a Mouse of Indie, otherwise Ichneumon, a beaste of Egypte of the greatnes of a Catte..who creepeth into the body of a Crocodyle, when in sleape he gapeth and eating his bowels, sleaeth him. 1579Gosson Sch. Abuse (Arb.) 38 Ichneumon a little worme, ouercomes the Elephant. 1607Topsell Four-f. Beasts (1658) 349 Marcellus and Solinus, do make question of this Beast (Ichneumon) to be a kinde of Otter, or the Otter a kinde of this Ichneumon,..it diligently searcheth out the seats of wilde Beasts, especially the Crocodile and the Asp, whose Egs it destroyeth. 1615G. Sandys Trav. 101 As for the Icnumon, hee hath but onely changed his name; now called the Rat of Nilus. 1681S. Colvil Whigs Supplic. (1751) 34 If Ichneumon and Crocodile Do fight in Niger, as in Nile. 1734tr. Rollin's Anc. Hist. (1827) I. ii. 222 The ichneumon was adored because he prevented the too great increase of crocodiles. 1855Eng. Cycl., Nat. Hist. III. 82 Lucan and Rumphius both notice the skill of the Ichneumon in seizing serpents by the throat so as to avoid injury.
2. A small parasitic hymenopterous insect (family Ichneumonidæ), which deposits its eggs in or on the larva of another insect; upon which its larvæ feed when hatched; an ichneumon-fly.
The name had been already applied by Aristotle to ‘a small kind of wasp that hunts spiders’; partly from which, partly in reference to the old stories as to the entry of the mammalian ichneumon into the body of the crocodile, Linnæus applied it to the parasitic flies. The genus is now much restricted from its Linnæan extent.
1658Rowland Moufet's Theat. Ins. 924 The Wasps called Ichneumones, are less than the rest: they kill Spiders called Phalangia, and after they have done they carry them into their nests, and dawb them over with dirt, and so sitting upon them do procreate their own species. 1671F. Willoughby in Phil. Trans. VI. 2279 It is very surprizing to observe, that a great Caterpillar, instead of being changed into a Butter-fly..should produce sometimes..a whole swarm of Ichneumones. 1753Chambers Cycl. Supp. s.v., Some of these Ichneumons make the bodies of other smaller flies the places of hatching their eggs. 1815Kirby & Sp. Entomol. I. xi. 193 Some Ichneumons, instead of burying their eggs in the body of the larvæ..content themselves with gluing them to the skin of their prey. 1864H. Jones Holiday Papers 149 On the cocoon which the caterpillar spins being opened, an ichneumon steps out, instead of a butterfly or a moth.
3. attrib. and Comb. ichneumon-fly = 2; † ichneumon maggot, the larva of the ichneumon-fly.
1671F. Willoughby in Phil. Trans. VI. 2279 There come many of these Ichneumon maggots out of the body of the same Caterpillar. 1713Derham Phys.-Theol. viii. vi. (1727) 375 note, The Insects that infest Fruits are either of the Ichneumon-Fly kind, or Phalænæ. 1789G. White Selborne (1853) 377, I saw lately a small ichneumon fly attack a spider much larger than itself. 1883Wood in Gd. Words 763/1 The parasitic Ichneumon flies..are here in great force. |