noun
definition
The Egyptian mongoose, Herpestes ichneumon, found in Africa and southern Europe.
definition
The ichneumon wasp.
Examples of ichneumon in a Sentence
The common ichneumon is rare.
The ichneumon (Pharaohs rat) is common and often tame; the coney and jerboa are found in the eastern mountains.
But the Bushmen's mythical theory of the origin of things must, as far as possible, be kept apart from the fables of the Mantis, the Ichneumon and other divine beings.
This is similar to the repulsive reproductive cycle of the ichneumon wasp.
The forest regions of Cochin-China harbour the tiger, panther, leopard, tiger-cat, ichneumon, wild boar, deer, buffalo, rhinoceros and elephant, as well as many varieties of monkeys and rats.
The ichneumon pierces the body of a caterpillar and lays her eggs where the grubs will find abundant animal food.
No group of terrestrial insects escapes their attacks - even larvae boring in wood are detected by ichneumon flies with excessively long ovipositors.
The tradition of Gelert, Llewelyn's hound, being buried there is old in Wales; and common to it and India is the legend of a dog (or ichneumon) saving a child from a beast of prey (or reptile), and being killed by the child's father under the delusion that the animal had slain the infant.
A Brahmin, leaving home, left his daughter in charge of an ichneumon, which he had long cherished.
A black snake came up and was killed by the ichneumon, mistakenly killed, in its turn, by the Brahmin on his coming back.
But the story of the ichneumon or mongoose is a fable.
The porcupine, the squirrel, the civet cat, the ichneumon and the otter are common.
He has a wife, an adopted daughter, whose real father is the " swallower " in Bushman swallowing myths, and the daughter has a son, who is the Ichneumon.
Among the mammals that fall under this head are the common genet (Genetta vulgaris), which extends, however, pretty far north, and is found also in the south of France, the fallowdeer, the porcupine (very rare), and a species of ichneumon (Herpestes Widdr-ingtonii), which is confined to the Peninsula, and is the only European species of this African genus.