ichneumon

[ik-noo-muh n, -nyoo-] /ɪkˈnu mən, -ˈnyu-/
noun
1.
Also called African mongoose, Egyptian mongoose. a slender, long-tailed mongoose, Herpestes ichneumon, inhabiting Africa and southern Europe, and believed by the ancient Egyptians to devour crocodile eggs.
2.
ichneumon fly.
Origin
1565-75; < Latin < Greek ichneúmōn tracker, equivalent to ichneú(ein) to track (see ichno-) + -mōn agent suffix
Examples from the web for ichneumon
  • Not that the ichneumon wasp is making any conscious choice.
  • We did find a large ichneumon wasp that had drowned in our bucket and a large wolf spider quite alive.
  • Descriptions of one new family, eight new genera, and thirty-three new species of ichneumon-flies.
British Dictionary definitions for ichneumon

ichneumon

/ɪkˈnjuːmən/
noun
1.
a mongoose, Herpestes ichneumon, of Africa and S Europe, having greyish-brown speckled fur
Word Origin
C16: via Latin from Greek, literally: tracker, hunter, from ikhneuein to track, from ikhnos a footprint; so named from the animal's alleged ability to locate the eggs of crocodiles
Word Origin and History for ichneumon
n.

1570s, originally a weasel-like animal in Egypt, Latinized from Greek ikhneumon, literally "searcher, tracker," perhaps because it hunts crocodile eggs, from ikhneuein "hunt for, track," from ikhnos "a track, footstep, trace, clue," of unknown origin. Used by Aristotle for a species of wasp that hunts spiders (a sense in English from 1650s).

Encyclopedia Article for ichneumon

any of a large and widely distributed insect group (order Hymenoptera) of considerable economic importance. The name sometimes refers to any member of the superfamily Ichneumonoidea, which includes the families Stephanidae, Braconidae, and Ichneumonidae. The Stephanidae, a largely tropical group, consists of several hundred species, and the Braconidae is a large, widely distributed group found in both temperate and tropical regions

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