Order: Hymenoptera. Section: Pupivora. Family: Ichneumonidæ, Leach.

Genus. Ophion, Fabr. Ichneumon, Drury.

Ophion Macrurum. Fusco-luteum; alis hyalinis, abdomine thorace triplo longiori ensato. (Long. Corp. 1 unc. 3 lin.)

Syn. Ichneumon Macrurus, Linn. Mant. p. 540. Drury, Append, vol. 2.

Habitat: New York.

Head small, dark orange-coloured. Eyes large, black, and oblong. Ocelli shining brown. Antennæ nearly the length of the insect, brown orange, and resembling threads. All the other parts of the insect are of the same brown orange, except the wings, which are transparent. Thorax short. Abdomen three times as long as the thorax, very small at the base, like a thread, but increasing in depth (not in thickness) to the extremity, where it appears square and even as if obliquely cut off; arched from the base to the tip. Legs slender, the hinder ones being the longest. Tips of the tibiæ with two long spines, those of the fore legs having only one.

This insect very closely resembles the common English species Ichneumon luteus, Linn. It is, however, considerably larger.

After describing this insect our author took occasion to enter into the natural history of the family to which it belongs, namely, the Ichneumonidæ, so named from the Linnæan genus Ichneumon, which last he says, "appears to be taken from its nature and way of life." He then proceeds as follows:—

"It is generally known that butterflies are produced from caterpillars, and that these caterpillars put on different forms before they arrive to that of the butterfly; but few persons know, who have not engaged in this study, that the bodies of these caterpillars are receptacles or habitations for lesser insects, that live and grow within them during a certain time; where they are nourished and fed by the juices of their bowels, till they arrive to a mature age; when, by the appointment of nature, they kill their fosterers, being totally unable to live on any other kind of food but what the intestines of these animals supply them with. The uses and advantages accruing to mankind by the institution of such a genus of insects, together with their natural history, are the subject of the following lines.

"If we examine the glorious works of the creation, and reflect on the paternal care and wisdom of the Almighty, displayed in the preservation and increase of all ranks and kinds of animals; that even the most direful and noxious, have such a proportion in the scale of life, as is most agreeable to the ends of His divine providence; that the limits He hath prescribed to each, extend so far and no farther; and that each species shall multiply in such abundance or scarcity, as are best adapted to preserve, by a just equilibrium, the harmony of the universe: When, I say, we behold this, the mind can scarcely forbear crying out, under a rapturous sense of conviction, "every thing is good." It is to this end we see the strong are permitted to prey on the weak; and that the number of the latter increase in a proportion sufficient to supply the wants of the former; it is to this end we see some feed on herbs and plants, some on fruits and seeds, and some on flesh; each being furnished with appetites and powers, suited to their respective ways of life: and it is to this end, we see those of the most minute kinds, abounding in a degree far beyond those of the first magnitude. The knowledge of the insect kingdom illustrates this observation beyond all possibility of doubt; and the number that may be bred from a single pair, in many species, would exceed all credibility, if it was not to be proved by any person who would take the trouble. The wonderful increase that only two summers would be capable of producing among many of them, if each egg was to yield its respective insect, is amazing. The world itself, in a few years, would be incapable of affording plants sufficient for the nourishment of one single species.[[29]]